


Glee One Shots

by AlineLovelace



Category: Glee
Genre: Multi, So I guess I just add characters and relationships as I go?, This is an ongoing collection of one shots, i'm not completely sure, one shots
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-06
Updated: 2018-09-12
Packaged: 2019-02-11 11:10:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 43,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12934005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlineLovelace/pseuds/AlineLovelace
Summary: Just a collection of Glee one shots I've written.





	1. Faberry- Coffee Shop AU

**Author's Note:**

> If you want to request a ship + prompt, message me the request on here, on wattpad @alinelovelace or on instagram @encyclopediabrittana !

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Quinn works in a coffee shop. Rachel just happens to be a regular customer.

Quinn Fabray stood behind the counter at Topped Off, wiping down the counter and ignoring the customers at the counter. It was unfair of her father to make her work a job to start to pay off her college tuition. Yale University was expensive and her father agreed to pay for half of her first year's tuition, leaving Quinn to work to pay off the rest. "Excuse me? I'd like to order a coffee?"

Quinn pretended to be interested in the dirty rag she was mopping the already clean counter with. "Now." A shrill voice demanded.

After throwing the towel in the sink, Quinn turned her best scowl towards the customer first in line. The girl in line seemed to be college age with dark brown flat-ironed hair and an obviously Jewish nose. Nothing really worth her attention. "Yes?"

"A triple venti, soy, no foam latte."

"Coming right up." Quinn rolled her eyes as she headed to the latte machine.

"I didn't ask for attitude with my coffee." The customer chirped.

Quinn pressed her lips together tightly. "Here's your coffee."

"My name is Rachel, by the way." The customer said as she passed five dollars across the counter. "Keep the change."

Quinn forced a smile on her face. "Enjoy."

She watched as the customer, who she now knew as Rachel, sit down at a table in the back and pull out a laptop. Topped Off was a hipster coffee shop with brick walls and succulents sitting in the windows. Dappled sunlight spilled through the windows, filling the room with a warm light. The light bounced off Rachel's hair, giving it shine. Her warm beige skin seem to glow in the sunlight. She couldn't see Rachel's eyes, but she was sure that the sunlight made her dark, wide eyes glitter.

Quinn began to feel her heart pound. _Shut up_ , she thought and started to swab down the counter again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Quinn was busy wiping tables off when Rachel walked into coffee shop the next week. Rachel had come into the coffee shop every day the previous week and Quinn studiously ignored her every time she attempted to order. Although she hated to admit it, the annoying girl was growing on her. Quinn smiled to herself and strode over to the counter. "What can I get you today?"

"Triple venti, soy, no foam latte and a cup of green tea for my friend." She nodded to the man standing a little behind her.

Quinn's smile faltered. The girl she liked was not supposed to have a boyfriend. "Coming right up."

She frowned as she walked back to the coffee machines. _Why am I so unlucky when it comes to love_ , she thought. It had always been like this, even in high school. Quinn Fabray was a cheerleader in high school, the most popular girl in the school, but she could never manage to keep a guy. She always managed to screw things up somehow. Like Finn. _He was the star quarterback, we were made for each other. Until I cheated on him with his best friend_. Quinn sighed. "The coffee!" Rachel exclaimed from the other side of the counter.

Quinn's eyes grew wide as she stared down at the large pile of foam on the coffee that Rachel specifically didn't order. "Sorry, I guess I'm a bit distracted." Quinn apologized and started to make Rachel her coffee over.

After carrying the coffee and the tea over to the counter, Quinn said the price of the order and waited for Rachel to pay, but to her surprise, the man behind her paid. "Kurt, you don't have to pay. It's on me."

"Yeah, but I'm the one who dragged you here to talk about what to get Blaine. It has to be special, it's his birthday and our first year apart." Kurt worried his lip. "What if he hates it?"

Quinn didn't pay any attention to Rachel's response. Rachel whoever she was was not dating Kurt. "Actually, they're on the house." Quinn interrupted.

A slow grin grew across Rachel's face. Quinn felt her heart crashing against her rib cage. _Rachel is really cute when she smiles_ , she thought. Quinn grabbed the rag from the back of the coffee shop and ran a bucket of hot water. She added soapy bubbles and started wiping down the counter, while watching Rachel talk with her friend. Rachel sat in her usual spot by the window near the succulents. Quinn was disappointed that the sun was completely covered by gray storm clouds; there was no sun to shine on Rachel, making her look like a goddess. _Quinn, is that seriously the best you can come up with? Goddess?_ She put her elbow on the wet counter and leaned against her hand. Rachel was too busy wildly gesturing to notice Quinn staring. Too caught up in her thoughts, she didn't even realize her elbow started to slip until she fell forward onto the counter. Quinn swore that her eyes were bugging out of her head when Rachel and Kurt both turned to look at her.

 _I don't owe them an explanation_ , Quinn told herself as she picked up the soaking rag and began to drag it across the wet counter. She tried to make it look as though her heart wasn't hammering; Rachel couldn't know she was staring at her.

Rachel must have noticed Quinn was staring because she was heading towards Quinn. Quinn threw the rag into the soapy water and headed into the back storage/break room and shut the door. She strode to the far end of the room and looked into the mirror on the wall. "Take some deep breaths." She murmured to herself.

Quinn hadn't seen herself so worked up over a person since Finn. She shook her head to clear her thoughts and her golden ponytail bounced back and forth. Quinn grabbed her purse and reapplied her lipstick and mascara. It gave her time to think. She had to deal with Rachel when she walked back into the shop. _I would rather just stay in the break room with all the coffee bags and fridges._ But Quinn was the only one on shift since the shop was small, so she eventually ambled back into the shop.

Rachel had gone back to her table, but as soon as Quinn walked back into the shop, Rachel practically ran over to the counter. "Were you staring at me?" she demanded.

Quinn subtly took a deep breath and wrote her number down on a sticky note and passed it across the counter to Rachel. "Maybe. Call me and I'll top you off any time." She teased with a wink.

Quinn had no idea how good it would feel to see Rachel's mouth drop open, rendering her speechless. She smirked at Rachel and turned on her heel to clean out the latte machine. A minute later, she heard Kurt whisper to Rachel, "Come on, let's go," and lead her out of the shop.

She felt her phone buzz in her jeans pocket. Quinn pulled it out and looked at the message. She didn't recognize the number, but the text read: 'dinner tonight?'.

Quinn quickly typed back 'If this is Rach, then yeah'.

'Yeah this is Rachel. Meet me at Little Italy at six tonight?'

Quinn smiled and felt a blush creep across her face. 'I'll see you there.'

 

**A/N: This Faberry coffee shop au was requested by my friend Star. Thank you for the request and thank you for the motivation to start writing again!**


	2. Kurtbastian- The Coffee Shop Boy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kurt meets a boy who always seems to be at the Lima Bean and falls for him.

Kurt dialed Blaine's number into his phone and pressed call. Blaine Anderson was Kurt's best friend and former crush. After pining over Blaine for months, Kurt realized that his attempts to win Blaine's heart were useless and it was time to move on.

Kurt drummed his fingers on his desk in his bedroom as the phone rang.  _It's only 7:30 pm so Blaine shouldn't be busy_ , Kurt thought. "Ugh. Pick up, pick up!" Kurt groaned in frustration and dialed Blaine's number yet again.

"Dude, what's going on?" Finn peeked his head into Kurt's room.

After Burt and Carole got married a few months ago, their joint family moved into a new house and Finn's room was right across the hall from Kurt's. Unfortunately for Kurt, he could hear everything that Finn was saying, watching, or doing. "Blaine won't pick up his phone." Kurt turned to look at his brother, a look of annoyance on his face.

"Maybe he's busy?" Finn shrugged. "I mean he has a life too, doesn't he?"

"Hello?" Came a voice through the phone.

Kurt waved Finn out of the room, although Finn left the door open when he left. "Hey, Blaine. It's Kurt." Kurt walked across the room to shut his door as he talked and ended up shooing Finn away from the open door.

"What's up? Is it an emergency? You called so many times." Blaine's worried voice cracked through the phone.

Kurt made a quick reminder to ask his dad for a new phone. "Um, it's not really an emergency, but I really needed to talk to you."

"Oh, okay. Can you make it quick? I'm a little busy right now." Blaine replied.

"Yeah sure," Kurt frowned and waited for a second to try and hear what Blaine was doing. After hearing nothing though, he continued, "I just saw this guy at the Lima Bean and he was in a Dalton Uniform. He was tall, slender, brown hair, and a smirk that never left his face. I was wondering if you knew him."

Kurt felt his face grow hot just thinking about the guy he saw at the coffee shop.  _Maybe it was a stupid idea to ask Blaine about this. Well, this is embarrassing._ "That's Sebastian Smythe. He just transferred to Dalton. Why?" Blaine's curiosity seemed to override whatever he was busy doing.

"Um, no reason really," Kurt replied.

The last thing he wanted to do was talk about crushes with his former crush. It just felt wrong. "Just curious I guess. I'll let you go. Bye." Kurt hung up before Blaine could get in another word.

His heart was pounding. "Sebastian Smythe," he murmured.

"Who's Sebastian?" Rachel appeared in the doorway.

"Finn! Come get your girlfriend!" Kurt yelled.

"Rachel's over? You must have invited her cuz I didn't." Finn appeared next to Rachel in the doorway and wrapped his arm around her.

She smiled up at Finn and kissed his chin since it was one of the only places she could reach on his face without going on her tiptoes. "I just heard Kurt talking about a guy," she explained to Finn. "And yeah, Kurt invited me over. I guess he forgot." Rachel glared at Kurt.

"Crap, sorry Rachel. I was distracted today." Kurt apologized.

Rachel wiggled her eyebrows. "Distracted by a certain Sebastian Smythe?"

"Shut up." Kurt threw a pillow at Rachel but ended up missing.

She giggled and sat down on Kurt's bed. Finn lost interest and wandered back into his room. "Tell me about him! I thought you liked Blaine?"

Kurt sighed. "Well, Sebastian is just this guy I saw at the Lima Bean. I figured it's time I moved on from Blaine. He doesn't like me that way and I need to accept that."

Rachel nodded. "Yeah... Well is Sebastian cute?"

"Well he's got brown hair, he's tall and slender. And he has this smirk. It's adorable."

Rachel couldn't help but smile. "I'm proud of you. Go get him!"

"I don't know if he's gay though." Kurt flopped backward on the bed.

"We could always do some Facebook stalking." Rachel pulled her phone out of her pocket and waved it around.

Kurt groaned. "Not today. Maybe some other time."

"Then we're going down to the coffee shop to see if he's there."

"Rach, he was there," Kurt checked his watch, "two hours ago. I doubt he's there now."

"I want a coffee anyway."

There really was no way to win with Rachel, so twenty minutes later Kurt pulled into the parking lot of the Lima Bean with Rachel and Finn in the backseat. "Let's get your coffee and go." Kurt frowned at Rachel as he got out of the car.

It was Christmas break and Kurt swore it snowed at least three feet just today. The snow was still falling in fat flakes. If it wasn't for the icy cold wind, it would've been lovely. Kurt, Rachel, and Finn dashed inside of the coffee shop. As the door opened, they were greeted with a gust of heat. Kurt involuntarily shivered. He hadn't realized how cold it was outside until now.

He and Finn took a table to wait while Rachel went to the counter to order. Even though it had been two hours, Kurt could help but look for Sebastian. Strangely enough, Sebastian was sitting at a table with a few other guys from Dalton. Kurt barely noticed when Rachel joined them until she said, "Is that him?"

Kurt looked over at Rachel, a little dazed. He had been in his own little world while he had been staring at Sebastian. "Mhm. He seems to live here."

"Well if you don't go talk to him in ten minutes, I will for you."

"Rachel, no."

"Rachel, yes." She had a smug smile on her face. "It's time for you to finally get a boyfriend."

Five minutes passed and Kurt was still trying to figure out what to say to Sebastian. "He's headed over to the counter to order! Now's your chance. Go." Rachel whispered loudly.

Kurt quickly looked around to see if anyone had heard Rachel. Once he was fairly sure no one had, he stood up and walked over to Sebastian.  _It feels like I'm walking to my death_ , he thought. Soon enough, he was standing in from of Sebastian. "Hey, are you new? I haven't seen you around here before."

Kurt hoped that didn't sound stupid. "Yeah, I am. Just transferred to Dalton Academy. The name's Sebastian Smythe. I know my name sounds great, but my number sounds even greater." He winked at Kurt.

He felt his cheeks flush red. Sebastian didn't even know his name and he was flirting with him.  _Oh my god. Do I like a player?_

"I go to Dalton too. My name is Kurt, by the way." He tried not to seem intimidated by the other boy.

It was hard not to be intimidated. Sebastian stood a few inches taller than him and confidence exuded from him. When he smirked, it was like he knew something before you did. It couldn't help but make Kurt nervous. "About that phone number." Sebastian gestured for Kurt to take out his phone.

Kurt pulled out his phone, unlocked it, and clicked on the contacts app. After he created a new contact, he handed his phone over to Sebastian to type in his information. Not more than a minute later, Sebastian handed Kurt's phone back to him. "Hopefully I'll see you around." Kurt gave Sebastian a small smile.

"Definitely," Sebastian smirked at Kurt and headed up to the counter to order another coffee.

Kurt strode past Rachel and Finn and straight out the door. The icy wind felt nice and Kurt took a few deep breaths of the cold air. His thoughts were a jumbled mess. "Why did you run out like that?" Rachel put her hand on Kurt's shoulder.

Kurt just shrugged and headed over to his car which now had a fine layer of snow on it. He silently got in and turned it on. He watched as Rachel and Finn talked for a few seconds before heading towards Kurt's car. They got in and the ride was silent except for the quiet static on the radio.

Once they arrived at the Hummel-Hudson house, Kurt went straight to his room and laid down on his bed. He had Sebastian's phone number which means he would have to text him first.  _He seemed like such a player though. He didn't even know me at all. Maybe he just thought I was cute though._  Kurt shook his head as if to shake away his thoughts.

After watching an episode of Project Runway, he decided to text him. 'Hey this is Kurt. What's up?'

Kurt let out a deep breath that he didn't even know he was holding. He needed to shake away the nerves and just be himself. He didn't want to be with someone if he had to pretend to be someone else. Kurt was ten minutes into a new episode of Project Runway before his phone buzzed. His heart started pounding and he looked at his phone. 'Hey cutie ;) I'm not doing anything except thinking about you.'

Kurt felt a blush spread across his cheeks. 'I'm flattered. I was actually thinking about you too.'

A few seconds later, a texting bubble appeared and Sebastian was typing back. 'Still can't find my way around town the best... maybe you could help me tomorrow'

'Love to. Give me your address and I can pick you up whenever.'

Sebastian texted his address and a time and Kurt texted Sebastian for an hour after that. He learned that Sebastian's father was a state's attorney and that Sebastian liked lacrosse, singing, dancing, and partying. Kurt told Seb about his hobbies and that Dalton had a show choir group called the Warblers. Sebastian said he was willing to try out for it.

For the rest of winter break, Kurt showed Sebastian around Lima and Westerville. Sebastian started asking Kurt on dates and Kurt accepted. Kurt was about to drive over to Sebastian's house when his phone rang. "Hey," he answered.

"Hey, it's Blaine. Do you wanna hang out later today?"

Kurt mentally kicked himself. He had been so busy showing Sebastian around, he had completely forgotten to spend time with Blaine over Christmas break. "Yeah, I actually promised Sebastian I'd go to the mall with him. Sorry."

Kurt held his breath, waiting for a response. After a long pause, Blaine finally replied, "Oh okay. I'll see you at school then."

Then silence. Blaine had hung up.  _Oh my god. I'm turning into the person that never makes time for their friends when they start seeing people romantically._ Kurt's heart clenched, but nevertheless, he still drove over to Sebastian's.

Once Kurt arrived, he knocked on the door. A tall woman answered the door. "Hello?"

"I'm here for Sebastian," Kurt said with a small smile.

"He's upstairs right now, I can call for him." She turned to face the stairs before yelling, "Sebastian! Someone's at the door for you."

"Be right down!" Came a reply from upstairs.

A minute later, Sebastian was walking down the stairs with some guy Kurt didn't recognize.  "Who is he?" Kurt tried not to let hurt seep into his voice.

"Just a friend."

But Sebastian was wearing his trademark smirk and a hickey on his neck that said otherwise. Kurt shook his head in disgust and left Sebastian's house and headed for his car.

"Kurt wait!" Sebastian stood on his front porch, slipping on his coat.

Kurt fought back hot, prickling tears and pulled out of Sebastian's driveway. He ended up just driving home. "You're home early." Burt, Kurt's father, remarked as he walked inside.

"Yeah, Sebastian got busy and he forgot to cancel our plans." Kurt shrugged as if it were no big deal. "I'm going to go to Between the Sheets to pick up some sheet music a little later if that's okay."

Burt grunted a yes and Kurt walked upstairs to his room. He flopped down onto his bed and pulled out his phone. Sebastian had texted several 'I'm sorry's' and a 'Kurt can we please talk about this?'. 

What he needed was a sleepover with Mercedes and Rachel. He loved hanging out with them and gossiping.  _But Mercedes is busy this week with family stuff and sleepovers with just Rachel aren't the same._ For the rest of winter break, Kurt decided to push Sebastian out of his mind and focus on music and his family. 

On the last day of break, Kurt got a single text from Sebastian asking him to come to the park and wait by the little footbridge. He also got a text from Blaine asking what he was doing today. Kurt frowned. He'd much rather spend the day with Blaine, but he had been ignoring his Sebastian problem for far too long. Kurt sent a text to Sebastian saying he'd be there and he sent a text to Blaine saying he was going to the park.

Kurt's boots crunched through the snow in the park. This winter, Lima had gotten an obscene amount of snow. Kurt didn't mind the snow until he had to walk or drive in it. The cool, fresh air cleared his head and for a moment, he forgot that he was there to talk to Sebastian. He was just walking across the small, wooden footbridge when he heard his name. Kurt turned towards where the yelling was coming from. Sebastian was hurtling towards him, kicking up snow as he ran.

"Kurt," Sebastian was panting when he reached Kurt.

"What did you want to say?" Kurt crossed his arms and tried to look irritated at the other boy.

"I'm sorry," Sebastian said with a small head nod.

"Okay, you've said that a million times. It doesn't change the fact that you're a player. I can't believe I trusted you." Kurt wrinkled up his nose.

Although he was still upset with Sebastian, he was more disgusted with himself. He trusted Sebastian so quickly, even though deep down he knew that Sebastian was trouble. He definitely wasn't as upset or disgusted as he had been on the day it happened though. That was an improvement. And when he saw Sebastian, he only felt a little tug in his heart. 

"Just hear me out, please." Sebastian looked at Kurt with puppy dog eyes and a sweet smile.

Kurt sighed. "Go ahead." 

Sebastian took a deep breath and let it out before starting to speak. "I know what I did wasn't right. A thousand 'I'm sorry's' won't fix my mistake or make you feel better. I deserve the resentment you feel towards me. It pains me to know I hurt you," Sebastian took a step closer to Kurt before continuing. "A mistake is a mistake and I can't undo what I've done. I don't have the right to ask anything from you, but if you can find it in your heart to forgive me, I would be so relieved. We weren't dating, but we had been seeing each other every day for the past week and a half. You're special to me, Kurt. I don't want to throw our entire relationship away because I made a horrible decision.

"I know it probably doesn't mean much, but I promise not to pull any stupid stunts like I did that day. And if you'd be my boyfriend, you'd make me the happiest guy in the world. So... what do you say?"

Kurt said nothing for a moment, letting everything Sebastian had said sink in. Sebastian had laid all his emotions on the line and spoke from his heart. Kurt shook his head in disbelief of Sebastian's speech. "Right now, I don't know if I want to kiss you or shove you off a bridge."

"Can I pick?" said Sebastian with a bit of a smirk.

Kurt gave Sebastian a playful shove, pushing him off the footbridge. "Hey!" Sebastian yelped. "I deserve it though."

After climbing back onto the footbridge, Sebastian gave Kurt a kiss on the cheek. A blush spread across Kurt's face. He glanced around the park before saying, "I love the scenery here," and pulling out his phone.

He and Sebastian took a selfie and started a stroll through the park. It wasn't until a few weeks later that Kurt noticed Blaine in their selfie, standing dejectedly in the background with a bouquet of flowers.   

 

**Thank you to Anna who requested Kurtbastian. I hope you enjoyed this!**


	3. Finchel- Fall Dances and Cannibals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rachel can't find a date to the autumn dance so she decides to raise the dead.

It was 9:30 on a Saturday night and Rachel Berry was pacing her room. The autumn dance was in a week and she had no one to go with. Her dads had already gotten her a dress so she had to go, and she refused to go dateless. She was running through a list of options. Kidnapping was too risky, even Rachel drew a line there. She'd even rather go alone than go with Jacob, the disgusting Jewish boy with the Afro. Rachel had nothing against Jewish people, she herself was a Jew. Rachel was about to throw herself on the bed in despair when she glanced at her history book and got an idea.  _What the hell_ , she thought. _I have no better ideas. Plus it's harmless. Sort of._  Rachel sat down at her desk and flipped open her laptop. 'Lima, Ohio founding date', she typed. 1794. She scrawled down the date on a sticky note and left it on her desk. It was too late to go out anywhere tonight, her dads would get angry. She'd just have to start her plan tomorrow after school. Rachel went to bed with a smile on her face that night.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

Rachel woke up the next morning invigorated. She worked out on her elliptical for thirty minutes, showered, and threw on a sweater, plaid skirt, and knee-high socks with sequins lining the top. She glanced at herself in the mirror; Rachel Berry looked amazing. "Morning dads!" She said cheerily as she skipped downstairs. Both her dads were sitting at the table, nursing their coffees. "Morning Rachel," her dad Hiram replied.

Rachel's dads weren't morning people, but Hiram always seemed to perk up first. Her dads didn't have much to say that morning, even if they did, Rachel didn't have time to listen. She grabbed a vegan granola bar and rushed out the door. "I'll be getting home a bit later tonight."

"Okay just don't stay out too late!" her dads replied in unison; it wasn't every day they got rid of Rachel.

The school day seemed to drag on. Quinn Fabray, head of the Cheerios, wouldn't stop bragging about her date, Noah Puckerman. Noah, who usually went by Puck, was the school's badass. He threw kids in the dumpster and stole lunch money. Unlike most bullies though, he was stunningly good-looking, with a sharp jawline and a smirk which always seemed to be on his face. Girls loved him. He wasn't Rachel's type, but she would have definitely gone with him if he had asked her. But he hadn't.

A rumor was going around about Puck and Quinn going together. Quinn had supposedly asked Finn to be her date, but he had turned her down. Finn was apparently turning down every girl that asked him. That was Santana gossip though and who knew if it was actually true. Rachel hoped it was true. The thought of Quinn Fabray getting rejected was satisfying. Even pretty, popular cheerleaders could get turned down sometimes. Thinking about this kept Rachel motivated through the day and finally the bell signaling the end of the day rang and she dashed out to her car.

She had everything she needed in the back of her car already. Rachel had loaded her trunk in the morning when she ran out to the garage to get her car. There was a large blanket, a shovel, two bottles of water, trail mix, a knife, and a thick book about necromancy. She hopped in the car, pressed down the gas pedal, and drove to the Lima cemetery. Since it was still light out, she couldn't start digging, but she could look for a grave. There were three important things she needed to look for on the grave: a boy's name, a date close to the early 1800s (no one could have ancestors that would care about their loved one's body being dug up now), and an age. She didn't want to go to the autumn dance with a 50-year-old. Rachel was already getting ahead of herself. Necromancy could be fake. Even though it was probably going to be a waste of her time, she wandered around the cemetery until 8, looking for a grave. Finally, she came across the one.

She mentally marked down the place and ran back to her car to grab her supplies. The grave she picked was slightly sunken into the ground, made of dark gray stone, and was crumbling. The stone read: Kurt Hummel, 1786-1803. Rachel had no idea why the boy had died so young, but he was 17 and single so she really didn't care. The sun had set a few minutes before so it was dark out. She turned on her phone flashlight and leaned it against a tree, scratched out a summoning circle, and started digging. Rachel was wearing a sweater, but her exposed legs were freezing. There was a slight breeze, and leaves were rustling.  _It feels like a horror movie_ , Rachel thought. She, of course, was the beautiful, innocent protagonist and she was just minding her own business when a zombie killed her. Finn would weep over her dead body. She smiled to herself, that all seemed nice but she had something else to focus on right now, digging up a corpse. It was 9:26 when she finally hit a coffin with her shovel. A half hour later, she dug around the coffin enough that she could try to open it. The casket looked like it was made of pine and it was crudely made as if it was made in a rush, or for a poor person. Instead of opening it then, Rachel used what little strength she had and lifted the coffin onto the summoning circle. For a moment, she thought that maybe her idea wasn't the smartest. Digging up someone's dead body could probably get her in legal trouble and even though her dads were both lawyers, they couldn't get her out of that. _Hesitating isn't good. I'm just going to go for it._  She took a deep breath, let it out, and opened the coffin.

Her pounding heart stopped. A thin, tall skeleton was laying in the casket. Chunks of rotting flesh clung to the bones, making Rachel gag. His hair was a matted mass of chestnut and most of it lay at the bottom of the casket. Although his coffin and grave were of poor quality, his clothes didn't seem to be. He was wearing a tailored suit with a red pattern on it. The closer she looked though, the more it looked like blood stains. In fact, the more she looked inside the pine casket, the more unsettled she was. His suit was splattered with blood and he looked like he was buried alive. The look on his face was angry and looked far from peaceful. His eyes were open and his dried out glasz eyes were tinted yellow.  _This is a mistake_. Rachel's heart started hammering and she started to move the casket out of the circle. Her hands started tingling as soon as she touched the box, so she let go. She'd watched enough horror movies with her dads to see where this was going. She stood up quickly and brushed the dirt off her knees. Rachel ran to grab her phone and then dashed to the car. She locked herself in so nothing could get into the car and surprise her. The casket was shaking, so Rachel revved the engine and drove as quickly as she could home.

When she got home, she threw open the door to her house, locked the door and screamed for her dads. "Dads, I'm going to die!"

Leroy ran out, followed by Hiram. "Rachel, what's wrong sweetheart?"

She just hugged her dad and buried her face into his shoulder. There was a light knock on the door and Hiram started towards the door. "No!" Rachel shrieked, "Don't open it!"

"Rachel, honey, what's wrong?" Leroy looked concerned.

"I accidentally did something and the consequences are coming."

Hiram chuckled, "I guess it's time to face those consequences."

"Dad, I'm serious! Don't open that door."

Like all people in horror movies, he opened the door. A boy stood on the porch. Rachel hardly recognized him, she only realized who it was by the suit. His rotted flesh had disappeared and was replaced with smooth, porcelain skin. The matted mess on top of his head was now a styled tuff of chestnut hair. He had the same glasz eyes though and a starved figure. "I'd like to talk to your daughter."

"She's right here." Leroy pulled Rachel off of him and pushed her towards Kurt.

"Nice to finally meet you." Kurt smiled at Rachel. His teeth were straight and pearly white, but his smile made her feel uneasy. "Your name is..?"

"Rachel," she replied. "You must be Kurt Hummel."

"Yeah. Do you think we could talk somewhere more... private?"

Rachel opened her mouth to deny him, but her dad interrupted her. "She'd love to."

As Rachel walked upstairs, thoughts clouded her mind.  _Was he a zombie? No, he looked too alive to be a zombie... He was resurrected. He's as alive as I am._  Rachel reached the top of the staircase and pushed open the bedroom door. She let Kurt walk inside first and followed behind him. "You certainly have an interesting room," Kurt noted as he strolled around Rachel's bedroom.

"Mhm," she replied, inconspicuously turning on her phone to make a google search.

Since he was so preoccupied with criticizing her room, he didn't notice at all. 'Kurt Hummel 1803'. Rachel was surprised at how many results popped up. She clicked on the first one, a history site. 'Kurt Hummel was born in 1786 to Elizabeth and Burt Hummel. Elizabeth was a tailor while Burt repaired carriages. In 1802, Kurt was accused of homosexual acts with an unknown man. Once the trial was over and he was found guilty, he was thrown in the Lima makeshift jail. Kurt Hummel broke out of his cell and disappeared for five months. He reappeared to commit murders and eat the victims' bodies. He was caught six months later and was buried alive in 1803.'

Rachel frowned at the screen. She had such bad luck. _I can't believe I dug up a gay boy. Out of all the people in the cemetery, I choose the gay one._  "Let's cut to the chase. What the hell is going on?" Kurt turned to face Rachel, arms crossed.

She took a deep breath and released it. "It's 2010, almost 2011. You were resurrected and I'm the one who did it."

"Why?" He scrunched up his face in confusion.

Rachel stared at her bed, embarrassed. "I needed a date to the autumn dance."

"Lord, you must be an awful person if you needed to raise the dead." Kurt raised his eyebrow. "Anyway, you aren't my type. Guess you raised the wrong person back from the dead."

"Yeah, I guess it's time for you to go back to the cemetery and go back to being dead." Rachel shrugged, acting as if she didn't care. She was terrified though; Kurt was capable of killing someone.

"Oh, honey. Why don't I stay here and help you instead?" Kurt looked a little panicked. "I can help you get a guy and if he doesn't want to go, we can invite him home for dinner."

Rachel thought for a moment; it would be a good plan if he wasn't a cannibal. "How do I know you won't eat me?"

"You brought me back, so I won't hurt you or your family. I owe you." Kurt smiled and this time, it wasn't as stomach churning.

Rachel mentally patted herself on the back. She did a good job.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

"Bye Kurt!" Rachel called as he walked out the door a few hours later.

Her dads smiled at her. "See that wasn't too bad," Leroy said.

Rachel shrugged and walked up to her room. "Night dads! I love you," she called down the stairs.

"Goodnight Rachel, I love you too," both of her dads called back.

As soon as Rachel got into her room, she ran to the window. "You can come up now." she whisper-yelled.

"Give me a second."

Rachel popped the screen off her window and watched Kurt clumsily climb up the trellis. Kurt eventually made it through the window and flopped down on Rachel's bed. "Will your family have me killed for sleeping with you?"

"No, they won't. I'll explain to them that you're a friend and you play for the other team. Rachel rubbed her eyes sleepily. She really hoped she wouldn't have to explain anything to her dads.

"What team do you play for?" Kurt demanded. "How do you know we don't play on the same team? Hell, I don't even like sports."

Rachel spoke calmly to counter the boy's anger and confusion. "It's slang. It means that I'm a girl and I like boys. That's one team, heterosexual. And then you like boys and you are a boy. So the other team is homosexual."

"I'm not gay." Kurt's eyes widened. "Don't say that, do you want me killed?"

"No. You can't be killed for being gay. No one can hurt you because you love someone of the same gender."

Kurt looked at her in disbelief. "Really?"

She nodded in confirmation and watched as his eyes filled with tears. "So I can date a boy?"

Rachel couldn't help but smile. "Of course you can."

"I'm so happy I can live here now, in the future," Kurt sniffled.

Rachel crawled across the bed and wrapped her arms around Kurt in a tight hug. "Me too. And now I have a best friend."

Kurt wiped a tear from his cheek. "I am not your best friend."

He waited until she reacted before saying, "I'm just kidding, you raised me from the dead, of course, we're best friends!"

"If you're going to school with me tomorrow you have to get some sleep." Rachel laid down and pulled the covers over her body.

"I get to go to school? Not at home?" Kurt sounded excited, but Rachel couldn't see his face because her eyes were shut.

"Yeah." She mumbled. "Lay down next to me and get to sleep."

Kurt agreed and cuddled next to Rachel. After only a few minutes, she heard Kurt's breathing level out and he was asleep. Rachel didn't want to admit it, but it was nice to have someone to sleep with, even if it wasn't romantically.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

"Come out of the bathroom!" Rachel pounded on the door.

"One more minute," Kurt replied.

Rachel sighed. This had been going on for the past hour. She let Kurt borrow a shirt and pair of pants, but his fashion taste was so refined for someone from the 1800s. They had first started with Rachel's dads' clothes. Kurt loved most of it, but the suits were baggy and the pants weren't tight enough. They went through half of her dads' wardrobe before she got the idea of going through her closet. Her clothes would definitely be tighter on him. Rachel turned when she heard the door click open. "I like this!" Kurt was grinning.

He was wearing a pair of Rachel's baggier jeans, which fit him like skinny jeans and a plain long-sleeved tee shirt in gray. He must have styled his hair while he was in the bathroom because it was slicked back. She smiled and nodded. "You look good! Sorry, but you have to climb back down the trellis and knock on the door to come in."

Kurt sighed, but headed towards the window and stood there.

Rachel walked over and unlatched the window for him. H _e must be one of those people who refuse to ask for help_ , she thought. Rachel watched as Kurt climbed down the trellis and she shut the window when he was halfway down. Rachel walked downstairs. She was careful not to hurry so she didn't seem like she was up to something. "Morning dads," she chirped.

"Good morning Rachel," Hiram mumbled.

Leroy just grunted. The doorbell rang as soon as Rachel was grabbing a cup to make herself some tea.  _Wow, Kurt must have learned how to work the doorbell._  "I'll get it!" She dashed to the door and swung it open.

Finn was standing at the door and Kurt was standing next to him scowling. "Hey, Rachel." Finn smiled. "I just wanted to give you your sheet music back. I was also wondering if you wanted to practice our duet tonight?"

Rachel felt her heart start to beat faster. It wasn't every day that Finn Hudson knocked on her door and asked to practice singing. But she had Kurt to deal with now. She would just have to work a little harder now to find Kurt a friend. Hopefully, he wouldn't eat them. "Yeah, I'd like that." Rachel smiled back, hoping she didn't look too happy.

"Cool." Finn rocked on his feet for a few seconds. "Uh, I'm gonna go to school, see you there."

"Yeah see you!"

Finn walked down the steps of Rachel's front porch and got into Puck's car. "Okay, and you said you needed my help to get a date?" Kurt made a face at her. "He's hot. He yelled at me for being a creep and trying to spy on you though. I don't know where he'd get that absurd idea."

"Yeah..." Rachel trailed off. "Do you want to come inside and eat something?"

Kurt nodded and followed Rachel through the kitchen. Rachel checked the clock, they had five minutes to get something to eat. She hurried, grabbing Kurt a bagel and sticking it in the toaster. She got herself two vegan granola bars and some butter from the fridge for Kurt's bagel. The bagel popped up and Rachel swore that Kurt jumped at least a foot in the air. She suppressed a giggle and buttered the bagel. After handing it to Kurt, she dragged him out the door and stopped in front of her car. "What the hell is that?" Kurt said, taking a step back.

"My car. Get in the other seat." She gestured to the passenger seat.

"Is this thing safe? Where are the carriages and horses?"

Rachel sighed. "If you get in, I'll tell you."

Kurt hesitated, but walked around the car and got in the passenger seat. Rachel leaned over and buckled his seatbelt for him. She opened the garage door with a button and backed out. Once they were on the road, Rachel explained to Kurt what he had missed. "Horses are a lot slower and less efficient so someone built this thing called a car. There's a lot of different types. All cars have safety features, unlike horses. If you get thrown off a horse and they trample you, you can consider yourself dead. Cars have airbags and the seatbelt keeps you in so if you do crash, you don't fly out."

Kurt looked amazed. "That's so cool! If my dad were alive, he'd probably be a car repairman." His eyes seemed to glaze over and he wiped a stray tear away.

Rachel just concentrated on the road and gave Kurt his privacy. She would be a mess if her dads died. She pulled into the school parking lot and parked in her normal spot. "Okay we're here," Rachel said cheerily.

Kurt looked out the window. "There's a lot of cars, there must be a lot of people here. When did Lima get big?"

Rachel just ignored Kurt and got out of the car. She waited until Kurt managed to unbuckle and open his car door, which took a while. They walked into school together and people stared. Rachel grinned, she never usually got this much attention, attention where no one was throwing a slushie at her at least. She spotted Quinn; her face was twisted with confusion and a twinge of jealousy. "Hi Rachel, who's that you're with?" she said, a fake smile plastered across her face.

"This is my friend Kurt. Kurt, this is Quinn."

"It's my pleasure," Kurt said with an unsettling smile.

Quinn blinked and looked around nervously. "I'll see you in glee club." She dashed off down the hallway.

Kurt looked at Rachel, but she only shrugged. "Tone down the smile maybe?"

They walked down the hall in silence, Kurt trying to take in everything that was going on, Rachel enjoying the stares. They were walking past a classroom when they heard an energetic voice say, "I'm new here! But don't worry I already did the family project to see who my ancestors were."

Rachel and Kurt both froze, the voice had caught their attention.  _That boy could be Kurt's friend_ , she thought. Rachel grabbed Kurt's arm and strode into the classroom. "Hi, I hear you're new here? Well, I'm Rachel Berry!"

"I'm Blaine." He smiled at her.

Blaine had triangle eyebrows and a mop of dark curls. His eyes were pools of amber and he wore a bow tie around his neck. "Can I see your project?" Kurt asked, obviously curious.

"Yeah!" Blaine grinned, he had put a lot of hard work into his research and even more work into pasting it onto a sheet of poster board.

Kurt examined the board, tracing it back to 1800. He took a big step back after reading the name on the board. His eyes were wide and Rachel knew she had to get him out of the classroom as soon as possible. Unfortunately, Blaine didn't seem to want that to happen. "Are we distantly related?" He sounded excited.

"We have to go." Rachel grabbed Kurt's arm and yanked him into the hallway. "As soon as we get to my locker, you have some explaining to do."

When they reached Rachel's locker, she crossed her arms and glared at Kurt. "Go ahead."

“I used to date his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandpa,” Kurt managed to gasp out, obviously surprised. “I didn’t think he’d stick around Lima after the incident. I didn’t know he had a family.”

Rachel’s mouth opened into an o. Kurt continued talking, “He told me he didn’t have kids. He mentioned a wife, but that’s it. I wouldn’t have dated him if I knew he had children.”

Rachel seemed disgusted. “He had a wife? And you still thought it was okay to be in a relationship with him?”

“He wanted to!" Kurt said in self-defense. "He came to me while I was sitting in my father’s shop. I asked him if he was married and he said he was, but he didn’t love his wife the way he was supposed to. He denied ever having children. I wouldn’t have dated him then; it would have put his whole family in danger.” Kurt furrowed his brow in confusion and frustration. “I didn’t even know what happened to him. After the whole thing. I don’t know if he was hanged, stabbed, or if he was even punished.”

“Did someone say punished?” A nasally voice interrupted.

Jacob, the Jewish boy with the Afro was standing behind them, microphone in hand. “Rachel, what is he holding?” Kurt murmured quietly.

“A microphone. That’s how people interview other people,” Rachel replied in a hushed tone.

“I’ll do your interview if we can go somewhere more private," Kurt said to Jacob.

“Kurt no.” Rachel tugged at his sleeve, but he ignored her and walked off with Jacob, determined to get his interview.

Rachel didn’t want to have to deal with Jacob, so she just let Kurt get what he apparently wanted. Rachel headed to English class, not exactly sure how she’d find Kurt again.

After English though, he was standing in front of her locker, mouth and the front of his shirt stained red. It only took a few seconds for Rachel to realized what he did. “Kurt, where’s Jacob?” She took a deep breath, anticipating his answer.

“I was hungry,” was Kurt’s reply.

“Oh my god, you can’t just do that!” Rachel exclaimed, in shock. She realized she was yelling and lowered her voice to a whisper. “You can’t eat people. You’ll get arrested.”

“Oh, so that rule is still the same,” Kurt mused.

“Yes, it’s murder!”

“Hm okay, I’ll keep that in mind.”

Rachel felt like she was going to gag. She didn't think that was the last time she would see Jacob and she didn't want to think about it. “I’m going to take you to the bathroom to wash your face off.”

Kurt didn’t protest and walked with Rachel. She pushed open the door and told him how to work a sink. He disappeared into the bathroom and Rachel leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes. Raising someone from the dead and actually having to take care of them was a lot of work. "Hey,"

Rachel opened her eyes at the sound of the voice. Finn Hudson was standing in front of her. He smiled his half-smile when she looked at him. "I just wanted to make sure that we were still on for tonight."

"Yeah, of course." Rachel smiled at Finn, trying not to melt into a puddle of happiness.

"And I kinda need a ride to your house," Finn said sheepishly.

"That's fine! Just meet me at my locker after school."

Finn nodded. "Cool. Well, I have to get to my next class."

Rachel nodded back at Finn. "Bye."

Kurt emerged from the bathroom as soon as Finn left. Rachel's gray shirt was now free of blood stains, although the collar of the shirt was soaked with water. Kurt didn't complain so Rachel just ignored it. "I want to see Blaine."

"What?" Rachel turned and looked at him. "Why? We need to go to class, Kurt. That's what you do at a school. You can't just wander the hallways doing what you want."

"After class can I see Blaine?"

"If you can find him."

Kurt groaned, then crossed his arms and stomped down the hallway after Rachel. Rachel rolled her eyes.  _He's being such a baby. I didn't sign up to babysit a former corpse._

Physics class seemed to last forever. Kurt kept challenging the teacher, despite not knowing anything about this century. Rachel normally loved learning, but Kurt was slowly changing that. Lunch was okay; Rachel was just glad she had someone to sit with. Kurt hadn't managed to find Blaine which was probably a good thing. The end of the day was approaching and Rachel was excited to see Finn. She wasn't sure what to do with Kurt though.  _I could let him find Blaine and go home with him, but Blaine might not live through that. I really don't want him to ride home with me and Finn though._

Rachel didn't have to wait long to find out what Kurt would do. He strode over to her with Blaine and said, "Blaine's coming home with us."

Rachel wanted to tell Kurt that she was practically going on a date with Finn and that she didn't want him around but instead she said, "Yeah that's fine. You just have to ride in the backseat."

Kurt agreed and stood next to Rachel to wait for Finn. "Hey, what are they doing here?" Finn Hudson asked Rachel as he walked up to her.

"They just need a ride," Rachel explained. She lowered her voice. "Kurt's a family friend so I have to do it."

"Ah." Finn nodded. "I get that. Well, we should probably get going."

"Yeah."

Rachel, Finn, Kurt, and Blaine headed to Rachel's car. It was an awkwardly silent ride to Rachel's house. Rachel was grateful that her dads wouldn't be home for a few hours. She told Kurt he and Blaine had to stay in the living room and she and Finn would be in her room. Her heart raced as she and Finn headed to her bedroom. They sat on her bed and sang for a while until Finn abruptly stopped singing in the middle of the song. "Rachel, could I ask you something?"

"Yeah go ahead," Rachel said.  _It's probably about the sheet music. The music isn't very hard, but it is Finn..._

"So?" Finn said.

Rachel felt her heart skip a beat. She had been so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't even hear Finn ask his question. "I'd love to?" Rachel guessed.

"Okay, so I'll pick you up at your house next Friday." Finn was smiling at Rachel.

 _I guess I have a date on Friday_ , Rachel thought to herself. _Finn is just sitting there smiling. God, he's so cute._ Rachel took a deep breath before leaning over to give Finn a kiss. Rachel was pleasantly surprised when Finn didn't push her away. "We should probably get back to practicing," Finn said, his cheeks flushed a light pink.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

A week seemed to fly by quickly. Rachel ended up telling her dads that Kurt was homeless and had nowhere to stay and he was relocated to the guest bedroom until her dads figured out what to do with him. Finn and Rachel hung out several times after school and Quinn was furious.

Finally, it was the day of the autumn dance. "Kurt, are you absolutely sure I look fine?"

Kurt sighed. "Rachel, we've been over this. You look beautiful and you're ready to dance with Finn Hudson. Just hope he doesn't step on your feet."

"Shush." Rachel threw her purse at Kurt and did one last twirl in the mirror. "Speaking of dancing, are you going to the dance with Blaine?"

Kurt's face seemed to light up when Rachel mentioned Blaine's name. "Yeah! We're actually dating so..."

"Oh my god! I'm so happy for you, Kurt." Rachel ran over to Kurt to give him a hug. "We've both got hot dates and we look amazing. How lucky are we?"

Kurt never got a chance to answer because the doorbell rang. "They're here." Rachel gave Kurt and nervous smile before grabbing his hand and running downstairs with him.

Rachel threw open the door and was greeted with a kiss on the cheek from Finn. "You look amazing, Rachel." He smiled at her and Rachel felt her heart melt.

She pretended not to see Kurt roll his eyes. He stalked over and sat on a couch arm. "Kurt, Blaine will be here soon," Rachel reassured him.

"I know he will," Kurt snapped back.

Rachel jumped a little. It was scary when Kurt got angry, especially since he used to murder people. Rachel was helping Kurt with his whole cannibalism deal. He hadn't eaten a student in four days. Rachel called that progress. Kurt took a deep breath before saying, "You and Finn should just go to the dance now."

As much as Rachel would've liked to head to the dance, her dads had rented a limo for her and Kurt to share. "Shared limo, remember?"

"Yeah," Kurt sighed.

They all stood in awkward silence until Rachel invited Finn in. Finn sat down in an armchair and Rachel sat across from Finn on a couch. Finn glanced at Kurt before staring at the coffee table in the center of the room.  _They don't want to talk because the other is here_ , Rachel thought. She cleared her throat. "So how was school today?"

"It was-" Finn started.

"I-" Kurt interrupted.

The boys both stopped talking and they lapsed into silence again. Rachel inwardly sighed. _This is awkward_. The doorbell rang and Kurt jumped up to get the door. Rachel glanced at Finn and noticed his obvious relief. She stood up. "Ready to go?"

"Wait." He gestured for Rachel to sit down again. “I have to talk to you about something.”

Rachel’s eyes widened.  _He can’t change his mind about the dance! It’s too late to._  “What is it?” she asked.

“It’s about Kurt.”

Rachel wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or not. Kurt was a very touchy topic considering he was a cannibal from the 1800s. “Yeah, I saw that you don’t really like him.”

“Well,” Finn paused to think for a few seconds. “Something with him is just off. It’s not that I don’t like him or anything. Rachel, please be honest with me. He’s not really family, is he?”

Rachel sighed. She and Finn weren’t even an official couple yet and the worst way to start off their relationship would be lying. “He’s not family. It’s a long story, but I resurrected him to be my date to the dance.”

Rachel stared at her shoes. “He’s from the 1800s. He’s also kind of a murderer?”

She looked up at Finn. He looked very confused. “I trust you, Rachel, but doesn’t that mean he’s  _extremely_  dangerous?”

Rachel quickly glanced at Kurt. “No, he promised not to hurt my family and I trust him. Finn, he’s changing. He’s a good person, trust me.”

“You raised someone from the dead though? Like he’s a zombie? Rachel, don’t ever do that again.”

Rachel frowned. Finn looked really upset with her, but the disappointment in his eyes killed her inside. She nodded slowly and looked back down at her shoes.

Finn stood up and straightened his suit. “We should get ready to go then.”

Kurt and Blaine were gushing over each other before Finn walked over and stood awkwardly nearby. Rachel watched as Kurt pursed his lips and Blaine fell into silence soon after. Rachel silently cursed Kurt for disliking Finn.  _What is his deal with Finn anyway?_

Rachel painted a smile on her face. "The limo should be waiting out front."

They all headed towards the limo with their respective date. Kurt and Blaine walked in front of Rachel and Finn. Rachel wrapped her arm around Finn's arm. "I'm really glad we're going together," she said.

"Me too." He planted a kiss on top of her head.

Rachel couldn't help but wonder if Finn had messed up her hair. She brushed the thought out of her mind.  _I'm happy and that's all that matters_.

After they arrived at the dance, the couples went their separate ways. Finn and Rachel walked around, trying to find their friends. Rachel spotted Kurt and Blaine dancing and talking near the punch bowl. Rachel barely noticed Finn stopped walking until she bumped into him. She looked up to see why they had stopped and saw Quinn and Puck standing in front of her. "Hey, dude. You here with anyone?" Puck looked around and purposely ignored Rachel standing next to Finn.

"Yeah, I'm with Rachel." Finn awkwardly gestured towards Rachel.

Quinn made a face. "You could've done better Finn."

Puck nodded in agreement. "Although you can't do much better than Quinn." He winked at his date.

"I wanted to go with Rachel. She's really great, you just have to get to know her." He wrapped his arm around Rachel. "We're going to go dance. See you guys later."

When they were far enough away from Quinn and Puck, Finn turned to face Rachel. "Hey, I'm really sorry for them."

Rachel shook her head. "It's okay. I really like that you stuck up for me."

Finn smiled at her. "I know I'm pretty bad at dancing, but do you wanna dance?"

Rachel laughed. "Yeah, I would love to."

Three songs later, a slow song finally started to play. Rachel looked up at the stage and saw Quinn and Santana. A few seconds later, they started to sing "Take My Breath Way". Rachel wrapped her arms around Finn and started to sway with him. She laid her head against his chest and looked up at Finn. This was perfect, this was everything she had ever dreamed of. Finn pressed a light kiss on the top of her head. Finn only stepped on her foot once, which was probably a dancing record for him.

The song was nearly over before Rachel heard a familiar voice yell, "Leave us alone!"

 _Kurt. Dammit, not now._  Rachel decided to ignore Kurt yelling to continue dancing with Finn. Unfortunately, Finn recognized Kurt's voice. "Hey, we should probably see what that's about."

"Yeah." Rachel frowned.

 _At least I'll always remember my first slow dance with Finn._  There was a circle of students clustered around three people. Kurt and Blaine were standing across of David Karofsky, a football player. "Leave us alone. I mean it." Kurt snapped at him.

"Well if you weren't-" Karofsky started.

Kurt took a step forward and snapped Karofsky's arm with an inhuman amount of power. "Will you stop now?"

Karofsky cursed. He was in obvious pain but was trying to conceal it. He ignored Kurt and walked right past him so he was standing next to Blaine. Karofsky grabbed Blaine by the collar and punched him in the face. There was a hollow shattering noise and Karofsky dropped Blaine onto the gym floor. Rachel thought that Kurt's eyes were going to bug out of his head. "Dammit, where are teachers when you need them?" she heard Finn mutter.

Rachel glanced around. There seemed to be absolutely no teachers in the gym. "You can hurt me, but don't you fucking dare lay a finger on Blaine ever again," Kurt snarled.

Rachel looked at Kurt. He looked like he was about to cry. Karofsky laughed. "I'd rather just hurt both of you."

Kurt took a deep breath before pulling a knife out of his pocket. Everyone in the circle took a few big steps back. Rachel watched as people nervously started whispering to each other. Karofsky was stupid, but he knew that a knife could seriously harm someone. Rachel pushed through the crowd until she was in the front. "Rachel, wait!"

Finn pushed through the crowd and protectively put his arm around her. He leaned down to whisper, "What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm going to talk to him," Rachel replied.

"Kurt! What are you doing?" Rachel said.

Kurt turned his head to look at her. "Getting rid of him."

"Kurt, no. Put the knife down."

Kurt ignored Rachel and took a step towards Karofsky. Karofsky took a step back. One step wasn't enough. In seconds, Karofsky had a knife through his heart. Everyone in the gym fell silent. Kurt walked over to Blaine and knelt down next to him. "Are you okay, honey?"

Blaine seemed to be completely oblivious that Kurt had murdered someone. "I'm okay, I think."

Kurt wrapped Blaine into a hug. "We should probably get you home."

Blaine nodded and they both stood up. Kurt led Blaine out of the gym to call his parents. He briefly came back and dragged Karofsky's body out a different door.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

The next day, Rachel flipped through the channels on the tv. Almost every news channel had a special on David Karofsky's murder. There was no evidence and no body. Some students had been interviewed and said it was Kurt. There was no proof besides what they said. Kurt had been interviewed and played his cards right. He had said the kids at school didn't like him because he was gay and the interviewers had reassured him that the accusations shouldn't bother him. Rachel had given Kurt a very stern talking to as soon as she got home from the dance. She signed them both up for anger management classes that started next week. Everything was peaceful from then on (mostly). 

 

**Thank you to Rachel for requesting! I'm still taking requests, so comment or message me.**


	4. Klaine - Nightbird

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kurt is a superhero and his enemy is Nightbird. Nightbird isn't like most supervillains though, he's more of a super-annoyance.

Kurt frowned. It was a hot, summer day in New York and sweat was dripping down his forehead, making the inside of his mask moist. He was running down the street, trying to find Nightbird, who was supposedly going to ruin a fundraiser in Central Park. Kurt wouldn't call Nightbird a supervillain, just an inconvenience that always seemed to keep popping up, no matter how many times he was defeated. Nightbird didn't even do horrible things, he never stole and he never attempted to kill. No matter what he did though, Kurt always had to stop him anyway.

Kurt came to a stop at a giant balloon arch. A sign that read 'Make-A-Wish Foundation' was taped to the arch. The fundraiser was a run and an ice cream social. Kurt casually walked over to the runners. "Have you seen Nightbird?"

A brunette girl turned to face him. "Oh my god! Frostbite is here!"

"Shush, please be quiet," Kurt put his hand on her shoulder. "Nightbird can't know I'm here. This way I have the advantage."

Kurt had no idea why he was even explaining this to the girl, but she nodded. "No, I haven't seen him. Are you going to run and raise money?"

Kurt opened his mouth to reply but luckily, he didn't need to. He heard the clattering of dishes and took off towards the noise. The noise came from the dozens of picnic tables and colorful umbrellas set up for the ice cream social. When Kurt made it to the tables, he immediately spotted Nightbird sitting on the ice cream coolers. Well, more draped across the coolers in an attempt to look attractive. If Nightbird wasn't so annoying, Kurt may have found him cute. Nightbird had a mop of dark curls and gorgeous hazel eyes. His eyes always seemed to light up whenever he saw Kurt. "I've been waiting for you, Frostbite."

Kurt crossed his arms and sighed. "Any last words before I defeat you?  _Again._ "

Nightbird put on a pouty face. "Aw, don't you love seeing me? Isn't it the best part of your day?"

"No." Kurt shot an ice beam towards Nightbird, but he rolled off the ice cream cooler just in time.

"Wouldn't it be a shame if the ice cream got ruined?" Nightbird braced himself before attempting to push over one of the ice cream coolers. 

Kurt watched as Nightbird continually tried to tip over the cooler. Eventually, he got tired of watching Nightbird struggle so he walked over to him. "Nice try."

Kurt froze Nightbird's feet to the ground and called the police. What a waste of a perfectly good Saturday afternoon. He jogged to the bathrooms and slipped into a stall. Kurt did the Wonder Woman spin and was in his normal clothes again. A tight, white and light blue bodysuit wasn't exactly great for a day in the park. Neither was the mask that suffocated his eyes. Kurt walked over to the sinks and stared at himself in the mirror. He never thought he would become a superhero. Kurt was attending NYADA, an academy for the dramatic arts with his friend, Rachel. He expected the unexpected, but this was too unexpected, too wild, too unreal. Kurt splashed his face with cold water.

By the time he left the bathrooms, Nightbird was already gone. "The police actually came quickly, what a surprise," Kurt murmured to himself. 

Since his work here was done, he left the fundraiser and headed to his apartment in Bushwick. Instead of running (which was a stupid idea), he took the subway which was much faster. Kurt sent Rachel a quick text saying he'd be home in 40 minutes and sat back in his seat. He watched as a woman made an effort to balance the cake she was holding. Kurt was about to get up and offer his seat to her when Nightbird emerged from a different subway car and pushed the cake out of her hands. "Oops."

Kurt put his face in his hands. Apparently, the police were slow again. Since he didn't have his costume on, he couldn't really do anything. Especially since the cake was already on the floor and what Nightbird just did was rude, not illegal. "Hey, can you not do that?" Kurt said, glaring at Nightbird. "That was rude and uncalled for."

All he got was a smirk out of Nightbird. "You can't tell me what to do. You're a nobody."

Kurt clamped his mouth shut. As much as he wanted to tell Nightbird who he really was and how much better he was than him, he said nothing. Nightbird got closer until he was standing in front of Kurt. "I said something. It's rude to ignore someone if we're going to be ethical here."

"Just leave me alone," Kurt mumbled.

He hated feeling useless and he hated being bullied. Kurt thought that stopped in high school, but several adults were bullies too. Nightbird being one of those adults. "Aw, do you want me to stop? Am I hurting your little feelings?"

"Fuck off," Kurt growled.

He sat up straighter in his chair. Even though Nightbird was standing, he wanted to seem bigger. "Oh? Do you want a fight?" Nightbird scoffed.

Before Kurt could think of a snide remark, Nightbird launched into the song 'Wanna Be Startin' Somethin''. Kurt rolled his eyes and just listened; it was better than being threatened. Nightbird was actually a good singer, he had a better voice than Kurt would've liked to admit and he even incorporated dance steps to go with the song. 

After Nightbird finished the song, he lowered his face so their eyes were level. "You wanna be starting something?"

"No," Kurt said politely. He pressed his lips together and gave Nightbird a forced smile.

"That's what I thought."

Nightbird skulked back to the subway car he came from. Kurt rubbed his temples and wished he would've just run home. The subway was giving him a headache, or maybe that was Nightbird. Kurt spent the rest of the ride home with his eyes closed, trying to ignore his surroundings.

It was a short walk to the apartment he shared with Rachel. Turning the key in the lock, he hoped she was doing one of her voice saving techniques. Kurt was tired and he just wanted the day to be over. He threw himself on the couch and waited for Rachel to come out of her bedroom. Kurt flipped the TV on, but there was only trashy, old shows on, as it usually was on Saturday afternoons. Soon enough, the pattering of socks on the wood floor sounded and Kurt looked over to see Rachel walking towards him with a letter. "This was slipped under the door a few minutes before you came home. It's for you."

"Thanks," Kurt grumbled and threw the letter on the coffee table.

He stared at the tv, half-watching the generic old western show they were playing. Rachel sat down next to him. "Aren't you going to open it?"

Kurt turned to face Rachel. "It's been a long day and I have a headache. A letter doesn't really matter right now. Besides, it's probably a note from the neighbor threatening us to shut up again."

Rachel hummed in reply. "Well if you aren't going to open it, I will," she declared, grabbing the letter off the coffee table.

Kurt didn't even bother trying to get the letter back. Once Rachel was intent on doing something, nothing could stop her. Rachel cleared her voice before reading the letter aloud. "Kurt Hummel, I know who you are."

"Well, the letter  _is_ for me," Kurt interrupted.

Rachel gave him a scornful look for interrupting her and continued reading the letter. "Meet me in the middle of Central Park at 10 tonight if you want me to keep your little secret. Don't bring anyone and don't bring your phone."

"That sounds so shady, Kurt. Don't go, you'll get killed." Rachel looked over at Kurt and tried to read his expression.

Kurt shrugged. "I might go."

"Kurt! They said don't bring anyone and don't bring your phone. Something bad is going to go down if you go. Please don't go, I need you," Rachel begged, clasping her hands together and leaning into Kurt.

"Hon, I'll be fine. I can take care of myself." Kurt gave Rachel a quick kiss on the cheek before moving off the couch and heading to the kitchen.

"What if it's Nightbird? He's a villain with powers and everything. You're not Frostbite, you can't take him down by yourself."

Kurt smiled to himself; Rachel had no clue who he really was and he didn't have plans to tell her anytime soon. "Have you ever seen Nightbird use powers? I think he's just bluffing."

Kurt watched as Rachel opened and closed her mouth several times. He laughed before saying, "I heard that his superpower is being super flexible or something like that. I bet he doesn't have an actual superpower, he's just making something up."

Rachel leaned over the arm of the couch. "Can you make me tea while you're up?"

"Then I'm not making dinner."

Rachel got up and plodded over to the kitchen to make herself tea.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The rest of the day was spent rewatching movies and gossiping about rumors heard from NYADA. At 9:00, Kurt and Rachel were in the middle of watching Mama Mia when Kurt told Rachel he was going to the bathroom. "I'm not pausing for you," Rachel replied.

"Whatever."

Kurt waited for Rachel to focus on the movie again before shutting the bathroom door. He then tiptoed to the front door and quietly left. Kurt hailed a taxi cab and got to Central Park at 9:50. The park was dimly lit by lampposts and there were only a few people milling around.  _Drug dealers probably_ , Kurt thought. It was a little chilly and Kurt wished he was wearing a sweatshirt. He kept his head down as he headed toward the center of the park. It was a long walk to the middle of Central Park, which gave Kurt plenty of time to think.

His first thought was about his phone which was sitting at home on the couch. Whoever wrote the letter wouldn't have known if he brought his phone or not. Kurt wondered how many other mistakes he was going to make tonight. He was completely unprepared. He wasn't in costume, although if the person who wrote the letter already knew who he really was, he could use his powers without his costume on. It was probably Nightbird, nothing to worry about.

Kurt barely noticed he was at his intended destination until he noticed a person lurking behind a tree. "I see you," Kurt said, breaking the deafening silence.

"I know," replied the voice.

It was a voice Kurt didn't recognize. Kurt took a few cautious steps towards the figure when he was grabbed from behind. He struggled against his captor as his hands were tied behind his back. Kurt was then tied to a tree. The man who had only been a distraction disappeared back into the park and his captor was standing in front of him. "I wish there was a streetlight here, you can't really see me."

"Nightbird," Kurt groaned.

"Yeah, how did you guess?" Kurt was concerned by the lack of sarcasm in Nightbird's voice. He sounded like how Kurt imagined an excited puppy would sound.

Nightbird fumbled around in the dark for a second before pulling out his phone. He turned on the flashlight app and taped the phone to the tree opposite Kurt across the path. "Is that any better?" he asked Kurt.

Kurt rolled his eyes. "Sure."

"Okay, so I bet you're wondering about why you're here," Nightbird paused, waiting for Kurt to confirm what he was saying.

Kurt just glared at him. Nightbird frowned before continuing. "The real reason you're here is because I want to talk to you. I didn't know how to get you here so I wrote the letter."

Kurt writhed against the ropes. "Untie me."

"You'll just leave then." Kurt could hear the hint of worry in Nightbird's voice.

Nightbird was such an annoyance that Kurt often forgot that Nightbird was a person too. Kurt sighed. "I promise I won't leave."

Nightbird didn't look convinced, but he moved to untie Kurt from the tree anyway. Kurt caught a whiff of raspberry when Nightbird leaned in to undo the ropes. Kurt rubbed his wrists where the ropes had left indents. "Take off your mask."

"What, why?" Nightbird questioned.

"Just do it," Kurt demanded, a slight edge to his voice. 

Nightbird started to take off his mask. Kurt could see Nightbird's hands visibly trembling as he lowered the mask from his face. Nightbird lowered his head and looked up at Kurt through his dark lashes. Nightbird looked like he was about twenty. He was a handsome, young man, definitely cuter with his mask off. Although Nightbird did look scared for some reason. Kurt took a few tentative steps forward. "What's your real name?"

"Blaine," Nightbird answered.

"You don't look like a villain, why do you do bad things?" Kurt asked gently.

Blaine's face flushed and he averted his gaze. "I didn't know how to get your attention. This was the only way I could think of."

Kurt felt a blush creep across his cheeks. "Why did you want to get my attention and how did you know I was Frostbite?"

Blaine subconsciously raked a hand through his curls. Kurt never noticed how soft Blaine's hair looked. "I don't know how people don't know who superheroes are. I mean you only wear a mask that covers part of your face. I saw you not in costume one day with some girl and everything just clicked.

"Anyway, I get it if you don't want anything to do with me. I'll stop bothering you." Blaine lowered his head.

Kurt reached out and grabbed Blaine's wrist. "No, I want to get to know you better."

Blaine took a step forward and the next thing Kurt knew, Blaine's lips were on his. Kurt placed his hands on Blaine's upper back and pulls him flush to his body. Blaine's tongue teased at the corners of Kurt's mouth. "You should come back to my place," Kurt took his mouth off Blaine's to murmur.

Blaine agreed and they took a cab back to Kurt's Bushwick apartment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You're so annoying!" Kurt hits Blaine in the face with his pillow.

"Hey! I'm just saying we have to practice our play in two hours," Blaine shoots back.

"It's too early," Kurt groans, rolling over to bury himself under a pile of blankets.

Blaine leans over and tugs the blankets off of Kurt. "Too bad. If you get up now I'll make you breakfast."

"Tempting offer," Kurt mumbles before sitting up.

Kurt smiles as his fiancé leans across the bed to plant a kiss on his forehead. "I'll go make pancakes. You better be dressed by the time I'm done."

A smile plays at the corner of Kurt's lips. "I bet you'd like it better if I didn't get dressed after I take my pajamas off."

It’s Blaine's turn to throw a pillow at Kurt's face. As Blaine turns to leave their bedroom Kurt calls, "You didn't say I was wrong."

"That's because you aren't."

Kurt felt his heart skip a beat. After the night they really met, everything just felt so easy with Blaine. When Blaine proposed three years later, he described it as 'remembering him from something, as if in every lifetime they had chosen to find each other and fall in love again'. Kurt feels heat ignite in his belly. Blaine made him happier than he ever thought he could be. And to think it all started off with a villain who was really bad at his job...  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to Star who requested Superhero!Kurt.  
> If you want to request a ship + prompt, message me the request on here, on wattpad @alinelovelace or on instagram @encyclopediabrittana !


	5. Klaine- Frostbite

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER WARNINGS!!!!  
> Mentions of suicide, depression, and suicidal thoughts!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you didn't see the above, trigger warnings are suicide, depression, and suicidal thoughts!!!  
> This was a vent fic for me, I hope you guys like it.  
> Remember, if you want to request a ship + prompt, message me the request on here, on wattpad @alinelovelace or on instagram @encyclopediabrittana !

Sitting on a bench in the freezing cold wasn't where Kurt Hummel pictured he'd be spending his Friday night. There were a lot of things Kurt hadn't expected in his life though.  He hadn't expected his mom to die, he hadn't expected to be bullied, he hadn't expected to transfer to a private school. What he _did_  expect was to be happy. Kurt shivers and wraps his arms around himself. He was definitely wrong about that.

A car drives past, splattering Kurt with cold slush. Kurt just sits, motionless. He's not sure why he's unhappy, he just is. But he has everything he could ever want. He has a group of friends, he goes to an amazing school, and he has the cutest, gay friend. So why does he feel so empty, so sad, so disconnected. Tear well up in Kurt's eyes and he doesn't bother brushing them away. The tears freeze before they reach his chin.

It's getting darker out and the temperature is dropping. Kurt’s too caught up in his thoughts to notice the tip of his nose turning pale yellow. He wishes he knew why he felt so empty, then he could try to fix it. The feeling hit him like a tsunami unexpectedly and he didn’t know how to get rid of it, fix the damage. That’s why he was sitting on in cold on a bus stop bench near the edge of town.

It was an easy lie to tell. Kurt told his dad he was going to Rachel’s. He told the rest of his McKinley friends he was going to spend time with Blaine. Blaine was miles away, completely oblivious. Kurt wished that someone knew, but then what would be the point of sitting in the cold. He wanted to scream for help, but he knew nothing could help him. Kurt’s gloved hands started to go numb, or at least he finally realized they were. There were warning alarms going off in his head, telling him to go inside somewhere warm. Kurt closes his eyes and ignores the warnings.

He thinks about his mom and dad. Kurt knows his mom would be upset with what he was doing now. He used to be her happy, little boy. His dad would and will be upset with what he’s doing. The thought of his father being upset and lonely makes Kurt’s heart feel like it’s being twisted. He then remembers that his dad has Carole and another son. He wouldn’t be missed and his father would have the family he had before back: a wife and a son. A happy son, a real son, a son his father deserves to have. Kurt pulls his knees into his chest, putting his face against his knees. He was a disappointment, a failure. 

Rachel and Mercedes wouldn’t miss him. They were getting along fine without him at school. He felt at home with the misfit Glee club at McKinley, but he always seemed to end up in second place. Second choice for a duet partner, second best singer. However hard he tried, Kurt never felt like he would ever be good enough. And Blaine? The entire school loved him, there would be someone else to replace Kurt. Kurt let out a shuddering sigh. He had been doing so well before this week, what happened? Kurt inhales but ends up in a coughing fit. The air was dry, cold, and hurt his lungs. He started taking smaller breaths, trying not to breathe too much of the air in at once. Kurt realized why people wore scarves over their noses and mouths. He wished he had brought a scarf. 

It feels like he’s drowning in his own unhappiness. It feels like he’s scrambling to try to pull himself out but he can’t. He feels like he’s desperately trying to latch onto something, something to help him out. Everything’s too far out of reach though and he keeps slowly sinking under. Kurt also feels like his heart is being torn out of his chest. His heart is getting ripped up to shreds and he feels nothing. The gap where his heart feels hollow, empty, and pointless; much how Kurt feels about his life now. He can hear voices in his head. His voice of reason he supposes. They’re telling him that suicide isn’t the answer. Right now it feels like the only answer though. It’s the only way he can escape himself.

Kurt decides to take a walk. His feet feel hot and numb. Walking hurts his feet but he goes on, regardless of his feet. As he walks, he continues to sink deeper into his overwhelming thoughts. Kurt is scared of himself. He hates that he's scared of himself. Scared that he’s going to hurt himself. He has too much power, power he could abuse. Kurt walks by a tree and pulls an icicle off a bare tree branch. He takes off a glove and pokes his finger with the icicle. It breaks skin, leaving a spot of blood on Kurt's finger. The blood freezes before he has a chance to wipe it away.

Kurt slips his glove back on and sits in the snow. He feels lightheaded like he might pass out. He knows it’s because he’s not breathing in much air, and the air he breathes in stings his throat. It hurts to breathe so he barely does. Kurt sees a figure walking through the snow and he squints to try and see who it is. A man who looks a lot like Blaine is standing a few feet in front of Kurt. “Kurt, is that you? What are you doing?” he says.

Kurt’s sure that he’s hallucinating. It must be the lack of air. “Hey, Blaine. What are  _you_  doing?”

“Rachel asked what we were up to. You weren’t with me so naturally, I was worried. There had to be a good reason why you would lie to one of your best friends. I went to go look for you.” Blaine replies, obviously concerned. “Now what are you doing here?”

While Blaine was talking, Kurt had unzipped his jacket. “I’m going to kill myself,” Kurt states, acting like it was as plain as day.

Blaine’s triangle eyebrows crinkle together. “What? Kurt, why?”

Kurt wordlessly looks at Blaine through his iced lashes. In one swift motion, he plunges the icicle into his heart. Blood slowly stains the front of Kurt’s shirt. It hurt more than Kurt expected it to, but it matches his emotional pain so he doesn’t complain about it. His head starts to feel woozy, so he gently lays himself in the snow. Blaine’s eyes widen and he dashed forward. “Kurt! What the hell, no. This can’t be happening.” Blaine runs his fingers through his hair before placing Kurt’s head on his lap.

Kurt looks up at Blaine, a faint smile on his face. “Blaine, I’m in love with you. I love you. And even though I’m imagining you, I needed to say it.”

Kurt shuts his eyes and lets out a shuddering breath. Everything goes black.


	6. Brittana- Sharp Rocks and Tough Decisions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Santana is a pirate who keeps her heart guarded. Brittany is a mermaid who Santana is madly in love with, although she won't admit it, even to herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want to request a ship + prompt, message me the request on here, on Wattpad @alinelovelace or on Instagram @encyclopediabrittana !

Simply put, Santana Lopez was in love, although she would never admit it. She leaned on the rail of her ship, watching the water gently splash as she rode by. The weather was perfect, sunny with a slight breeze. It was quiet except for the caw of seagulls and murmur of voices from the other end of the ship. Santana was so deep in thought, she barely heard the footsteps of a crew member as he approached her. "Captain? It appears we've hit something with the boat."

Santana turned to face the man. He was probably one of the new recruits, as she didn't recognize him at all. The man was also sent over to give her bad news. None of the seasoned crew members would ever do that; they'd just fix the problem. "It better not be another dolphin," she hissed. "You know the meat on dolphins tastes like shit."

She saw a visible bead of sweat form on his sunburned forehead. Santana pushed past him and headed to the front of the boat. Her entire crew was there, clustered, staring over the rail into the sea. "Get back to work!" Santana barked.

The crew scattered, scurrying back to their assigned jobs. Santana peered over the rail. Laying on a pile of rocks nearby was a mermaid. Santana turned back to yell at her crew. "Fuck you guys! You suck."

Santana looked over the rail again and sighed, this is what she got for having an entire crew of men. She tied a rope to the bowsprit and climbed down. She had to swim a few feet to reach the rocks and she cursed her incompetent crew the entire way. "Hey, baby? You okay?" she asked the mermaid as soon as she climbed onto the rocks.

The mermaid turned to face her. Chunks of her blonde hair were plastered to her face with water and her eyes were filled with tears. "Dammit," Santana muttered. 

She hoped that the mermaid would be in better condition. It wasn't the first time they'd hit this mermaid before. With her crew's terrible steering skills and the mermaid's lack of brightness, it wasn't a surprise to have crashed into her again. Santana stood up to yell at her crew. "Put the anchor down. Looks like we'll be here for a while."

Santana could hear the frustrated complaints of her crew from above. "Hey, remember who hit the mermaid?" she pointed out. She heard the crew go quiet. "That's what I thought."

She turned her attention back to the mermaid in front of her. "Britt-Britt, does it hurt anywhere?"

The mermaid placed both hands over her heart. "It hurts here. Because you keep leaving me."

Santana closed her eyes. She should’ve expected Brittany to say something like that. Santana opened her eyes and reached over to put her hand on top of the other woman’s. "How am I supposed to bring you with me? You don't want to be put in a tank and isolated from the rest of the ocean. I couldn't do that to you anyway."

Britany moved to put her head on Santana's knee. "I miss you though," she stared up at the pirate with big, pleading eyes.

"I miss you too. There's not really much we can do about it and you know it." Santana felt her heart ache as she looked down at Brittany, sad. blue eyes staring up at her.

She loved Brittany, although she would never tell her. It would just be signing up for heartbreak. Her crew wouldn't take her as seriously if they knew she had a heart. Brittany was a mermaid and she was a pirate; it hurt to admit, but they just weren't meant to be. Santana brushed Brittany's hair out of her face and listened as Brittany talked about their future. Brittany thought they were going to live together happily in the ocean with her merkitty, Lord Tubbington. Santana looked at Brittany, anguished. "Britts, you know I want that, but I have a ship to run."

Brittany sat up and looked at Santana with a pout. "Pretty please, sweetie?"

Santana leaned forward to press a kiss on Brittany's lips. "Sorry, I can't. Plus, I can't breathe underwater."

Brittany tried to wrap her arms around Santana to stop her, but Santana stood up. "I have to go."

Brittany started to protest, but Santana blocked it out. She couldn't let some  _girl_  get into her brain. Especially a mermaid, someone she could never have a future with. Santana ignored the tug at her heart and climbed back onto her ship. She could hear wailing from the ocean and the crew looked at her in confusion. "She's fine," Santana verified. "Just being overdramatic."

The crew looked dubious, but they had to listen to their captain. Santana adjusted her giant pirate hat and sighed. "Let's get going. We're going to intercept Berry and Hummel's ship as they leave the port at Manhattan."

The rest of the day was spent staring at seemingly endless ocean and screaming at useless men. Santana was relieved when the sun started to set. She headed down into her quarters to eat, then try to sleep. The worst part of being a pirate was the awful food, Santana supposed. She nibbled on a dry biscuit and washed it down with rum. The sea turtle meat the crew was eating tonight had maggots, so Santana had passed on that. Besides pillaging, there wasn't much to do as a pirate. Santana wasn't educated, so she couldn't read. She found out that she wasn't much of an artist either. Nights were boring, having no one to talk with and nothing to do. She was just about to blow the candle that was lighting her room out, but there was a tap on the porthole.  

Santana took a cautious step forward. She grabbed her candle off her desk so she could see what was outside. Santana peered out the porthole. At first, nothing seemed to be there. Santana relaxed, she probably imagined the noise. She was about to head to her bed when something suddenly moved by the porthole. Santana nearly jumped out of her skin. Her heart started racing until she saw what was moving around. Brittany was pressing herself against the window, making kissy faces at Santana. Santana let out a sigh of relief. She kissed her hand and pressed it to the porthole glass. Brittany grinned at her and started talking animatedly; she had no clue Santana couldn't hear her. Santana exaggeratedly yawned and stretched and blew out the candle. She hoped Brittany got what she was trying to show. Santana headed to her hammock and laid down. She added the hammock to her list of bad things about being a pirate. Santana was only in bed for a few moments before she fell asleep.

Santana woke up at 2:00 am with a parched throat. She groaned, waking up in the middle of the night always messed up her sleep schedule for the next few days. Santana fumbled around in the dark, managing to light a candle. She walked through the ship, her heeled boots clicking on the wood. The ship's kitchen wasn't far from Santana's quarters. She poured herself a glass of rum and headed to the deck. The only good part of being up in the middle of the night was the absolute quiet. The sea birds were asleep and the only noise was the gentle lap of the waves against the ship. Santana set the candle on the deck and leaned on the ship rail. She took a swig of her drink and glanced around to make sure she was alone before she started to quietly sing. 

Santana loved to sing, although she would never admit it. Her crew would ridicule her for loving to sing. Singing reminded her of Brittany, which was probably because most of the songs she knew, she had heard Brittany sing. Brittany could be ditzy, but Santana thought she was a genius. Brittany had made up several love songs, most of them about her and Santana. Santana adored them, just as she adored Brittany. 

She sang several songs until she started to tire. Santana drank the last sip of rum from her glass and stared out at the ocean. She bent down to pick up her candle but stopped when she heard a voice. It was quiet at first, but it seemed to be getting closer. Santana recognized Brittany's voice as she warbled a familiar song. Soon enough, Brittany came into sight and waved at Santana. "Hey, Britt. Why are you still up?"

"I couldn't stop thinking about you. You're so close yet so far," Brittany explained.

Santana felt her heart melt. "Oh, and I found a way we could be together. You didn't say anything when I explained it through your window," Brittany continued.

"I couldn't hear you. The glass is pretty thick, sweetie."

Brittany laid down on her back in the water. "Well, I talked to a sea witch. She said as soon as I call her, she'll come and turn you into a mermaid."

Santana stared down at Brittany. "Why don't you call her now?"

Brittany sat up suddenly. "Oh, I forgot! You need to have the heart of a woman as an exchange thingy. It can't be yours though."

Santana cursed. "Of course, there's a catch."

Brittany swam closer to the side of the ship. Her eyes brimmed with tears. "Are you saying we'll never be together? Do you even want to be with me, Santana?"

Santana knelt down on the deck and stretched her arm towards Brittany. "No, Britt, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying things are just going to be a little complicated." 

"How complicated is complicated?" Brittany asked, a hint of sadness still in her eyes.

"Actually, not very. I have a plan; I should be able to get a heart tomorrow. Just stick by the boat," Santana enunciated. "Please be careful, though. I don’t want to hit you with the ship again."

"Okay, I'll try," Brittany nodded.

"I wish I could kiss you goodnight," Santana said quietly.

"What did you say?"

"I said I wanted to kiss you goodnight." Santana buried her face in her hands.

She felt so dumb whenever she tried to say something romantic. Santana peeked through her fingers at Brittany. Brittany had her hands on her heart. "Aww, honey, that's so sweet." She blew a kiss at Santana.

Santana pretended to catch it and put it in her heart. She then blew a kiss back to Brittany. "I'm gonna get some sleep. I'll see you tomorrow. I lo-" Santana stopped herself before she could say it.

_I love you_. Santana wanted to say it, but she hated being vulnerable. She hated talking about her feelings, she hated admitting she had feelings. Santana just hated feelings in general. She grabbed her candle and hurried below ship before Brittany could say anything. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Santana realized that she stared at the sea way too much. She was sitting, dangling her legs off the deck. This time, she had things to think about while staring into the choppy sea. Internalized conflict was Santana's least favorite kind of conflict. It was so much easier to argue with other people and then kick their ass. She had a big decision to make and it wasn't something that could be easily dismissed. 

Santana hit her head against the ship rail several times before letting out a string of cuss words. Why was nothing easy? She already told Brittany that she was going to become a mermaid with her, but she wasn't sure that it was the right choice. She couldn't just leave her ship, her crew, being a pirate. Santana didn't want to throw her life away. There were several things that could go wrong if she decided to be a mermaid with Brittany. Brittany could get tired of her. If Brittany left her, what would she even do? She'd be stuck as a mermaid alone. Santana was snapped out of her thoughts by a crew member yelling, "The ship is under attack!"

Santana pulled her sword from her leather scabbard on her belt. "Do you know whose ship it is?" she yelled over the noise of cannons.

"Captain Puckerman, Captain."

"Tell him to hold his fire," Santana demanded. "I want to talk to him."

Several minutes later, Santana's crew was lowering a plank so she could cross over to Puck's ship. What could he possibly want from her? She had far more important things to ponder anyway. Santana saw Puck as soon as she made it to his ship. He was wearing his signature shit-eating grin. "What the hell do you want?" Santana snarled.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Calm down, princess," Puck said, putting his hands up in mock surrender.

"Don't call me that." Santana pointed her sword at Puck. "Just tell me what you want. I have a ship to plunder later and I need to be there on time."

Puck strode forward. "I just wanted to talk to my old pal. Maybe, reignite things?"

Santana laughed. "Why do you think I'd want to be with you?"

Puck shrugged nonchalantly. "Because there's no one else you can be with? I know you don't like your crew."

"Fair enough, but I'm not interested."

"Your loss," Puck said.

He snapped his fingers and his crew swarmed Santana. She managed to slash a few men down before they grabbed her wrists and her sword fell to the ground. Santana kicked at the men, but none of them seemed bothered when her heels pierced their skin. "Where did you find these men?" Santana asked.

Puck put a finger on Santana's lips. "Shhh, I'm asking the questions here."

Santana opened her mouth and bit Puck's finger. He took a few steps back and shook his hand. "What the fuck, Santana."

Santana spit Puck's blood onto the deck. "Let me go."

Puck shook his head as he paced back and forth. "I have a few questions first."

"First one being, who are you with?"

"My crew." Santana put on a bored expression. "That's who's on my ship."

Puck stopped in front of her. "You know what I meant. You must be in love with someone."

"No. I don’t do love," Santana said.

As she said that, she felt her cheeks flush red. Santana silently cursed herself. Puck laughed. "We can all tell that was a lie. Now tell me who he is or I'll cut your tongue off."

Santana sighed and paged through a mental list of guys in her head. "Kurt," she decided.

"We all know he's gay. I'm not messing around, Santana, I will cut off your tongue."

"You wouldn't know them." Santana rolled her eyes.

Puck seemed to be thinking about Santana's answer when a voice yelled, "San? San, are you okay? Do you need help?"

Puck raised an eyebrow. "Who's that?"

Santana shrugged. "No idea."

"She called you 'San'. No one is allowed to call you that."

Santana felt her heart skip a beat as Puck suddenly realized the truth. "You're not interested in me because you're a lesbian. And you love that girl who's calling for you."

"No-"

She interrupted by Brittany wailing, "San! Are you okay?"

"Yes, Brittany," she yelled in reply.

Santana turned to glare at Puck who was smirking at her. "So I was right." He gestured for his men to let her go. 

Santana rubbed her wrists. She turned around to walk back to her ship and Puck followed her. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"I want to see your girlfriend," he waggled his eyebrows.

Santana let out a sigh. "Fine."

Puck looked down off the ship. He glanced back up at Santana. "A mermaid? How are you going to be with her?"

Santana sighed and rubbed her temples. "I could become a mermaid with her. There's some deal or something. I would have to leave everything behind though." She gestured at the ships. "I don't know if I want to do that though."

Puck nodded and opened his mouth to speak but Santana continued, "I love being a pirate, but when I'm with Brittany, everything seems perfect." She hesitated. "I love her and she makes me happy. And you know I'm not happy often."

"Yeah, that's true. I've never really seen you happy. What's the real reason you don't want to be a mermaid?"

Santana averted her gaze. "I'm scared of the risk. What if it doesn't work out? What if she doesn't love me back?"

Puck put his hand on Santana's shoulder. "If it's gonna make you happy, just go for it."

Santana gave Puck a quick hug before heading back to her ship. "Thanks, I'll see you around."

Puck waved as her ship pulled away. Santana was surprised that for once, Puck was smart. She should be with Brittany because it makes her happy. Santana wasn't usually afraid of risks, but that was because feelings weren't usually involved in the risks she took. She mentally prepared herself as she rode the rest of the way to the Manhattan port. 

Brittany swam alongside the ship and Santana watched her out of the corner of her eye. It was weird to think that in a matter of minutes, she would have a tail too. Santana stared at her legs and wiggled them. She was going to miss her high-heeled boots and the clicking they made on the ship deck. "Goodbye legs," she murmured to herself.

"Captain, the target ship was spotted. What should we do?" a member of the crew said.

"Start by shooting cannonballs at them. Then pull up next to them so I can jump over. We'll have a fight. Leave Lady Hummel alone and let me deal with Berry."

"Yes, Captain."

Santana took a deep breath. This was it. She was going to become a mermaid very soon. Santana crossed over to the Hummel-Berry ship. "Santana, what are you doing?" Rachel yelled. 

"Intercepting and plundering your ship, duh," Santana replied, unsheathing her sword.

"Kurt," Rachel wailed. "What are we going to do?"

Kurt backed away from Santana and her crew. "Surrender?"

Rachel set her jaw. "No, I'm not going to give up." She pulled out her sword and pointed it at Santana. "Bring it on."

Santana raised an eyebrow and shrugged. "Okay, I guess. I hope you know how to swordfight."

She took a step forward and jabbed at Rachel. Rachel danced away, thrusting her sword at Santana. Santana barely moved away in time and cursed. Her sword clashed against Rachel's. "Go, Rachel!" Kurt cheered.

"Hummel! If you stop cheering, I'll bring you Mercedes." Santana shouted.

Kurt looked stunned. "Really? I haven't seen her in years. She's a mermaid, how would you even find her?"

"I have contacts." Santana winked.

Kurt mimicked zipping his lips shut and throwing away the key. The cheering didn't bother Santana, she just wanted Kurt to be on her side. It would irritate Rachel. And from what Santana saw, it did. Rachel's movements became more aggressive and sloppier. Santana scoffed; she knew that anger made you a less accurate fighter. In only a few minutes, she was able to knock the sword out of Rachel's hand. "Santana, please don't hurt me."

Santana twirled her sword in her hand. "I don't think so, Berry."

She watched as tears started to pour down Rachel's face as she started to cry. "I don't wanna die," she bawled.

Rachel tripped as she started to back up. She curled into a ball and her entire body shook and she convulsed with sobs. Santana stood over Rachel. "Look at me."

Rachel slowly uncurled from her ball. She stopped crying and wiped her eyes. Rachel looked at Santana through dewy eyelashes. They stared at each other for a moment before Santana raised her sword. Rachel closed her eyes and whimpered. In one swift motion, Santana drove her sword into Rachel's chest, making sure not to hit her heart. She heard Kurt gasp and a few second later, a thud. Santana was sure Kurt passed out, but she tried not to linger on the thought too long. 

She slit Rachel's chest open and knelt down next to her. Rachel, who wasn't quite dead, let out one last, painful sob and fell quiet. Santana used her sword to crack some of Rachel's ribs so she had access to her heart. She scrunched up her nose. Santana didn't really want to rip Rachel's heart out. She decided to first lean over the ship and talk to Brittany. "Britt, call the sea witch."

Brittany nodded before dunking her head underwater. A few seconds later, she resurfaced. "She should be here in a minute."

"Cool."

Santana headed back over to Rachel's body. She looked away before reaching her hand in and pulling out the heart in a quick tug. Without looking at Rachel or the heart, she walked over to the side of the ship. Brittany was bobbing up and down in the water and there was a woman next to her. "Wait, the sea witch is Mercedes?"

Brittany nodded vigorously. "Yep!"

"Do you want me to toss the heart over?" Santana asked Mercedes.

"Yeah, that would work." Mercedes brushed her hair over her shoulders before holding her hands out.

"After you do the spell or whatever, Kurt's on board this ship," Santana said before tossing the heart to Mercedes.

Mercedes's eyes lit up. "I haven't seen Kurt in forever, I've missed him." 

"So, do I have to do anything for the spell?" Santana asked, changing the subject.

"Yeah, you just have to jump into the water while I chant the spell."

Santana plugged her nose before jumping into the water. The water felt as cold as ice and Santana couldn't help but shiver. She started treading water to stay afloat. Her soaked clothing made her feel like she was wearing a pound of bricks. "Can we get this started?" she said, teeth chattering.

"Yeah, okay." Mercedes nodded, before brushing her hair out of her face.

Mercedes dramatically thrust the heart in the air with both hands. She cleared her throat before starting to chant. "Ab intra, a capite ad calcem, esto quod es. Ex undis, de novo, ex animo, esto quod es. Ab intra, a capite ad calcem, esto quod es. Ex undis, de novo, ex animo, esto quod es."

Brittany leaned over to whisper in Santana's ear, "You're supposed to be thinking about becoming a mermaid, by the way. Mercedes forgot to mention it."

Santana gave Brittany a quick smile and a nod before closing her eyes. She imagined having a tail with gorgeous, fiery red scales. It was hard to think of anything while being immersed in ice water and being weighed down by heavy clothes. Santana opened her eyes after she heard Mercedes stop chanting. She glanced down in excitement, only to see her own human body. "I did everything you told me to," Santana fumed. "What the hell?"

Santana felt anger and panic well up inside her. She wasn't a mermaid. It was strange how fast you could lose everything. She could never be with Brittany now that she wasn't a mermaid. Santana blinked tears out of her eyes. Every time she thought something good was going to happen, she never let herself think it was real. She got excited after it happened, in case something bad happened. The one time she cast that mindset aside, things went wrong. Santana didn't know what she was going to do now. She planned for this to work, she planned to have a future with Brittany. All of it was taken away from her in a matter of minutes. Santana was partly angry at life, partly angry at herself, and partly angry at Mercedes and Brittany for thinking this could actually happen. 

"It-" Mercedes started to say, but Santana swam closer to her ship and out of earshot.

Santana refused to cry in front of the mermaids, so she figured the best way to ignore their existence was to be on her ship. "Toss me the rope!" she yelled at her ship, hoping a crew member would hear.

It took a few minutes, but a rope was tossed down. She grabbed the rope and started to climb. Santana managed to shake off her heavy coat and throw it onboard. Climbing was hard enough soaking wet, she didn't need her jacket weighing her down. She glanced down to see Mercedes and Brittany huddling close together in the water. They were probably talking about how stupid she was to actually believe she could be a mermaid. Santana felt betrayed. Was Brittany liking her just part of an elaborate prank? 

Santana used the rest of her energy to pull herself back on the ship. She wanted to just lay on the deck and not move for a few hours, but she couldn't let her crew know anything was wrong. "Did we finish looting the ship?" Santana asked a short, balding crew member.

"Yes, almost, Captain," he stammered.

"Good. I'll be in my quarters," Santana replied.

She walked to her quarters as quickly as she possibly could and slammed her door behind her. Hopefully, her crew would think she was angry and stay away from her. Tears pricked her eyes and threatened to fall. Santana hastily swiped the tears from her eyes and sighed. She just wanted to curl into a ball and cry; she didn't want to be the strong one anymore. Too bad being a pirate was all about being tough and strong.

Santana started to strip off her soaking wet clothing. She was cold, miserable, and heartbroken. Her soaked clothing was carelessly thrown on the floor. Santana knew it would be a wet mess to clean up later, but she didn't care. It was after she had stripped off all of her clothing that she heard a tap on the glass window. As a reflex, she turned to see who it was. Brittany had her face pressed to the window and she made a whistling motion as if to say she was hot. Santana felt her face heat up. She knew Brittany couldn't hear her through the glass so she would have to go back on the deck to talk to Brittany.

So she did. Santana stormed on deck, completely naked. She leaned over the rail and yelled, "You pervert!"

That turned heads, everyone on deck was looking at her, Kurt from his ship turned, Mercedes and Brittany stared at her from the ocean. Santana crossed her arms over her chest. "You're all perverts. Especially you," she spat at Brittany.

Brittany's eyebrows crinkled together. "What did I do?"

"You were staring at me through my porthole!" Santana sighed in frustration.

"You're normally okay with it. Sometimes we-"

"Shut up!" Santana yelled as her face flushed an even deeper red. "I don't want to see you right now. Or ever again."

"But-" Brittany started.

"I don't want to hear it." Santana shook her head and made a beeline for her quarters. 

Brittany wasn't peering through the windows when Santana looked, which was a good sign. Brittany had listened to her. Santana threw on a maroon corset with straps and tight, black pants. She sat on the floor, back pressed against the wall. Everything hit her at once. She told Brittany that she never wanted to see her again and she seemed to listen. She was gone by the time Santana got down to her quarters. Santana's heart ached at the thought of never seeing Brittany again. She wished that she would've tried to talk to Brittany about everything that happened. Life without Brittany was... unimaginable. Santana pulled her knees up to her chest and cried.

She let herself grossly sob into her knees. She knew that her crew could hear her, but she didn't care anymore. Her shot at happiness was gone and she would never see Brittany again. The ocean was too deep and too wide for that to be possible. Puckerman even noticed that she was noticeably happier, so she must have been a lot happier. All of that was because of Brittany. Brittany was the only person who could do that for Santana. And Santana just threw it all away in a matter of minutes. She felt absolutely awful about everything and the only way that seemed to help was to just cry it out. 

Santana cried until her head ached and she when lifted her face from her knees, it was dark out. Without a candle, her room was pitch black. Santana cursed; her day just kept getting better. She fumbled for what seemed like an hour before managing to light a candle. She wandered out into the kitchen area to pour herself a shot of vodka. Santana was dehydrated from crying but drinking rum would just make her headache worse. A shot of vodka sometimes helped with her headaches. Of course, she wouldn't be surprised if it didn't tonight. 

Santana went back to her quarters and laid down in her hammock. Sleeping would at least get rid of her problems for a few hours. She shut her eyes and tried to fall asleep. Hammocks were so uncomfortable it was practically impossible to fall asleep right away on them. Santana spent hours laying on her hammock with her eyes closed. She visualized blackness. She didn’t feel like thinking, at least not now. Santana must have partly fallen asleep because she didn't hear the door to her quarters squeak open. She didn't hear the sound of bare feet padding across the floor either. Santana was awakened when she hit the floor with a hard thud. "What the hell," she mumbled, half-asleep.

Her hammock flipped, meaning that someone tried to climb into bed with her. She got up off the floor and ran to light a candle. Santana was going to kick the crew member who tried to climb into bed with her off the ship. Literally. She held the candle out, illuminating the area by her hammock. Sitting on the floor was a girl. The girl seemed extremely confused about everything that just happened. Santana took a few cautious steps forward to see the girl better. It only took her a few seconds to recognize the blue eyes she stared into almost every day and the curve of her lips. "Britt?" she asked, tears welling up in her eyes.

Santana fell to her knees and cupped Brittany's face in her hands. "I didn't think I'd ever see you again."

Brittany leaned forward to wipe a stray tear from Santana's face with the pad of her thumb. "Why did you think that?"

"I yelled at you. I said I never wanted to see you again," Santana sniffled.

Brittany tilted her head to one side. "I don't understand why you yelled at me. I didn't do anything differently than I normally did."

Santana sighed. "I was just upset since the spell didn't work."

"The spell worked," Brittany said. "It just takes a few hours. Mercedes and I were trying to tell you, but you wouldn't listen."

Santana glanced down at her own lower torso. "Britt, I don't have a tail."

"Me either."

Santana stared at Brittany. Her tail was replaced with a pair of smooth legs. Santana hadn't noticed because she was so overwhelmed with happiness. "How?" she sputtered.

"Mercedes did the spell backwards, which is the other thing we were trying to tell you. Why did you get so upset anyway?"

Santana sighed and stared at her fingers, which were entangled with Brittany's. She looked up to meet Brittany's eyes, but she hastily flickered her gaze back to their hands. The concern on Brittany's face grew and the woman leaned forward to brush the hair out of Santana's face. "San, what's wrong? You don't have to tell me why you were upset if you don't want to."

Santana shook her head. "No, I want to." She took a moment to recollect herself before beginning. "For years, I've been this way. I hide my feelings because I'm scared. I'm scared of showing how I feel. I never let myself think I have anything good, just in case I don’t get it."

Brittany started to reply, but Santana cut her off. "I just can't allow myself to be happy because if something goes wrong, I'll be heartbroken. I let myself think that we could actually be together and when I didn't sprout a tail, I thought it was over. I let myself be happy for once and it backfired."

Brittany didn't say anything but wiped a tear off of Santana's face. Santana didn't even notice that she had started to cry. She sniffled and tried to recompose herself. "I- I love you, Brittany. You make me the happiest woman alive. I thought I was going to lose you."

Santana searched Brittany's face for a tell that the other woman felt the same way. She felt her throat start to close up when Brittany's face was emotionless. Santana was quiet as Brittany seemed to think. "I don't think you've ever said you loved me before," she finally said.

Santana shook her head 'no'. "I love you too, Santana. I've always loved you, and now we can finally be together." Brittany gave Santana a smile.

It only took Santana a few moments to close the space between them to give Brittany a hug. She buried her head in Brittany's neck, smelling her hair. Her blonde locks smelled like salt and seaweed. Santana let herself melt into Brittany's arms. She felt safe with the other woman, which was strange because as a pirate, she never felt safe.

Santana pulled back to plant a kiss on Brittany's lips. It started out as a quick peck, but Brittany leaned into the kiss. She teased Santana's bottom lip with her tongue and Santana complied, bringing her tongue to meet Brittany's. Santana had never kissed Brittany like this; knowing that they loved each other seemed to change everything. Brittany's legs straddled Santana's waist and Santana couldn't help but let a moan escape her lips.

This seemed to encourage Brittany and she started to trail kisses from Santana's jaw to the neckline of her corset. Santana let out a breathy sigh and ran her hands down Brittany's side and let them rest on her waist. Somehow, Santana only just noticed that Brittany wasn't wearing clothes. Brittany was about to unlace Santana's corset when there was a knock on Santana's door before it flew open.

"I saw this cat wandering the ship, what should I do with-" the crew member's mouth fell open as soon as he saw Santana.

He dropped the cat and Brittany removed herself from Santana before surging forward to grab the large cat. "Lord Tubbington! San, it's Lord Tubbington!" 

Santana opened and shut her mouth several times, not sure what to tell her crew member. She didn't need to think of anything because he suddenly yelled, "Captain is in her quarters with another girl!"

Santana stood up to grab a blanket to wrap around Brittany so she was mostly covered. In a matter of minutes, half of the crew was trying to crowd into her quarters. There was oohing and ahhing at the sight of Brittany and Santana stepped in front of Brittany protectively. It didn't do much good since Brittany was few inches taller than the other woman. "Who is she, Captain?"

Santana felt Brittany's arm wrap around her waist. "She's my lover," Santana announced boldly. 

Murmurs spread amongst the crew members. "If you have a problem, take it up with me," Santana snarled.

The crew members hurried out of her quarters back to their separate parts of the ship. Brittany placed a kiss on Santana's head. "So, we're lovers now?"

Santana felt her face grow hot. "If you want."

"I do." Brittany grinned at Santana. "But now we're going to have to figure out how we can both fit in that hammock."

** A/N: This Brittana fic was requested by Jea. Thank you for the request! **


	7. Klaine- The Invisible Man

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER WARNINGS!!!   
> Mentions of depression and death by car crash.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you didn't see the above, trigger warnings are depression and death by car crash!  
> Remember, if you want to request a ship + prompt, message me the request on here, on wattpad @alinelovelace or on instagram @encyclopediabrittana !

Kurt felt invisible. It was something he felt on a daily basis. He was constantly ignored by friends and family. He would talk and no one would listen. It was like he didn't exist on some days. He blamed this on himself. Kurt often talked too much about things no one was interested in. He understood why people ignored him. Instead of using his ‘invisibility’ to his advantage, he sat around moping about it. Kurt was someone who gave into their emotions and let their feelings consume them. His feelings felt overwhelming, like a huge wave. He just let the ocean of his thoughts drown him. He knew it wasn’t healthy, but it would be a hard habit to break. 

Kurt sat on the couch after school, watching Fashion Runway. He would meet up with Brittany to watch new episodes every Thursday, but they were playing reruns tonight. It was strange watching without Brittany, but Kurt didn't mind though; he had finished all of his homework and had nothing better to do. The episode was about halfway over when Finn walked in the front door. He had basketball practice, so he got home a few hours after Kurt. Finn sat down on the couch next to Kurt and changed the channel to football. "Hey! I was watching my show," Kurt fumed.

Finn just stared at the tv, as if Kurt wasn't even there. Instead of trying to get the tv back, Kurt just sighed and walked upstairs. He was too tired to argue with Finn. School had been hard, everyone was ignoring him. In fact, it had been almost a month since anyone acknowledged him, family or people at school. Entering his room, Kurt gave a sigh of relief. Finn hadn't touched any of his stuff. Carole often sorted his and Finn's clothes wrong so Finn would rifle through Kurt's drawers, trying to find missing clothing. There were no clothes on the floor and everything was immaculate. Kurt's books were sorted and standing up straight, his picture frames were tilted at the right angles. After admiring his tidy room, Kurt flopped down on his bed. He pulled out his phone and checked his messages. No messages, as always. It was 4:50 pm, so Kurt decided to do Carole a favor and make dinner for the family. He had nothing better to do anyway.

Kurt reluctantly got off of his comfortable bed and ambled downstairs. Finn was still watching old football games on the couch. Kurt peered out the window to see that there were no cars in the driveway. Dinner would be a surprise for his parents. Kurt was careful not to make too much noise. Finn hated it when Kurt interrupted football unless it was for snacks. It was the same when Kurt watched Project Runway. Since Burt and Carole would be getting home in about an hour, Kurt decided to make something quick. He decided on lasagna stuffed shells. Kurt enjoyed cooking and baking. He was fantastic at it and was often praised for his delicious meals. Kurt wished he got that much praise for his singing though. It only took him 45 minutes to whip up the lasagna. He even had time to portion out the meal out for four people. Kurt hovered in the doorway of the kitchen, waiting for his parents to get home and compliment the dinner he made.

Kurt ended up sitting on the floor since standing took so much energy and made his legs sore. It had been ten minutes since he made the lasagna and he was afraid it was going to get cold. Kurt was just about to play Candy Crush on his phone when the door finally swung open. Kurt leaped to his feet and rocked on his heels. He was impatient from waiting so long and now his family was all finally together. Kurt had tried a new recipe as well and was ready for input. "Finn, did you make that?" Carole asked.

Finn must have thought Carole meant the birdhouse sitting on the coffee table that he made in woodworking class. "Yep," he said, not glancing away from the tv for even a second.

Carole walked over to plant a kiss on the top of Finn's head. "Thank you, sweetie. It's been a hard month and it was very thoughtful of you to make dinner."

At this, Finn swiveled his head away from the tv. "I didn't make dinner."

Burt lightly punched Finn's arm. "Sure, you didn't. You know, cooking doesn't make you less of a man. If anything, it makes you more of a man. Kurt taught us that." 

At the sound of Kurt's name, everyone seemed to fall silent. Kurt noticed that their eyes looked glazed as well. "I made dinner actually," Kurt said.

No one seemed to hear him. They all just trudged to the table as if they had huge weights resting on their shoulders. "Are you sure you didn't make dinner?" Carole asked Finn.

"Yeah, Mom. You know I can't cook."

"Why is the table set for four," Burt blurted. "There's only three of us."

Everyone stared at the table in wonder and fear while Kurt leaned against the wall, arms crossed. "Seriously guys, this game isn't funny anymore," Kurt and Finn said in unison.

"Finn, neither your mom and I made it. We were both at work," Burt explained.

"Maybe a neighbor dropped by and left it. To try and help out," Carole guessed.

The family agreed that that was probably the most likely scenario and sat down to eat. Kurt was sure his heart was shattered. They were his family and they didn’t even wait for him to sit down to start eating. Kurt didn't stick around to see what they thought of his meal, he felt like he was going to cry. 

He rushed out of the house to his car. Finn had been driving it to school, Kurt sitting in the passenger seat. Whenever Kurt wanted to drive, Finn always just sat on him. Kurt didn't like being sat on so he settled for just sitting up front. It was finally his turn to drive again. He put the key in the ignition and the car roared to life. "Oh, how I've missed driving," Kurt murmured to himself.

After an hour of driving around aimlessly, Kurt decided to visit Blaine. He hadn't seen Blaine in a month. They had a bad fight a month ago at Blaine's house and Kurt hadn't seen him since. Kurt didn't remember a lot from that night, just that they were supposed to have a sleepover. They ended up fighting and Kurt lost his temper and left. Even though it was late and dark out, Kurt had driven home. He missed Blaine, but he was too embarrassed to go crawling back to him. Apparently, Blaine hasn’t missed him because he hadn’t texted Kurt since. Kurt figured it was time to apologize.

A buzz came from Kurt's pocket. He pulled over to the side of the road to check his phone. Excitement buzzed in the air. Kurt hadn't gotten a text in what felt like forever. The text was from Blaine and read, 'Kurt, I miss you like crazy. I can't help but blame myself for everything that happened. I know you won't get to read this, but I love you. I was so obtuse not to notice it right in front of me. It took something huge to get me to notice that I had feelings for you. My heart aches knowing I'll never see you again. I just wanted to type everything out. Blaine x'.

Kurt blinked a couple times. He couldn't believe what he had just read. Blaine Anderson had a crush on him. Kurt threw his phone on the passenger seat and sped to Blaine's house. He was almost all the way there already. He couldn’t wait to see Blaine again, especially after what the text he received said. 

After pulling into Blaine’s driveway, Kurt took a deep breath. His entire world was about to change. For the better for once in his life. After taking a few deep breaths, Kurt decided it was time to ring the doorbell. He got out of his car, making sure to lock it and slip the keys into his pocket. Kurt walked up the paved pathway to the house.

Kurt knew he would never get over how huge the Andersons' house was. He stood on the front steps, hesitating to ring the doorbell. Kurt slowly pressed the button. He waited, hoping that Blaine answered the door and not his parents. A few minutes passed and no one came to the door. Kurt rang the bell again. Sudden panic swept over him. What if Blaine's text was part of an elaborate prank? Everyone seemed to like to pretend he was invisible. What if Blaine was in on the invisibility stunt too? He knew Blaine loving him was too good to be true.

Kurt rang the doorbell one last time. This time, he heard someone running down the stairs. A few seconds later the door flew open. Blaine stood in the doorway, wearing his Dalton uniform. Kurt threw himself at Blaine, wrapping the other boy in a tight hug. "I have feelings for you too, Blaine."

Kurt pulled away from the embrace to look at Blaine's face. Blaine didn't look the way Kurt expected him to. Instead, he wore an expression of complete terror. Blaine took a few steps back. "You d-died," he stuttered.

"What are you talking about?" Kurt asked, stepping inside Blaine's house.

"You aren't real. I'm just creating an image of you in my mind because I feel absolutely lost without you."

Kurt wasn't sure what to do. Blaine seemed completely convinced that he was seeing a ghost. Blaine squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again. Obviously not getting the result he wanted, he pinched his arm several times.

 "Stop acting so weird, you're freaking me out. Can we sit down and talk about this at least?” Kurt gestured to the large, leather armchairs sitting in Blaine's living room.

Blaine massaged the bridge of his nose before sitting in a chair. "It doesn't hurt to talk to you I guess."

Kurt sat down across from Blaine. "How about you explain everything that happened the night we fought," Kurt suggested.

"Yeah, okay," Blaine said with a sigh.

"After we fought, which I'm assuming you remember, you grabbed your stuff and left. It was really late, probably two in the morning. I was pissed off so I let you leave. I fell asleep and that was that. But then I woke up to Cooper yelling about a friend being on the news."

Tears started to form in Blaine's eyes. He chose to ignore them and continue on with his story. "I rushed downstairs because it's always really cool seeing people you know on the news, especially your friends. There was a crash on the highway. A drunk driver had plowed into a car, tipping it into a ditch."

Blaine leaned towards Kurt for the first time Kurt had arrived. Blaine looked unafraid. His face now wore a look of grief. He grasped Kurt's hand in his. "The drunk driver was okay, just a few minor scrapes. The person in the car he hit was killed. That person was you, Kurt."

Kurt's heart skipped a few beats. He felt his whole face crinkle up in confusion. "I'm dead?" he whispered. 

Blaine nodded, tears streaming down his face. Kurt felt tears well up in his eyes and he brushed them away with his free hand. "No wonder no one can see me. I've been making dinner and no one knows it's me. I've felt invisible for this past month and it's because I am."

Kurt let go of Blaine's hand and started sobbing, burying his face in his hands. Processing everything at once was so hard. He no longer had a future. Kurt was just a ghost, floating around for no one to see. No one except Blaine. "How come you can see me?" Kurt sniffled, hoping that Blaine understood what he was saying through sobs.

"I don't know, but you seem very real. I can't be making this up," Blaine bit his lower lip. "We'll figure this out, I know we can."

A distant noise sounded interrupting their moment. Blaine turned to look towards the kitchen where his mother was cleaning up dinner. The yelling got louder and seemed to be coming from above. It got louder until it echoed through the entire house.

And then Blaine woke up. The first thing he did was check the news on his phone. He scrolled until he found the article he was looking for. The title read, 'Lima Teen Killed in Drunk Driving Accident'. Blaine wished that he could stay asleep forever.


	8. Rynique- The Bodyguard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Unique is a rising star who has earned her first bodyguard. Her bodyguard is a cold, unfriendly man named Ryder. Will Unique be able to stand Ryder?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Requests are open!! If you want to request a ship + prompt, message me the request on here or in the comments, on wattpad @alinelovelace, Tumblr @alinelovelace, or on instagram @encyclopediabrittana !
> 
> I'm sorry this chapter is so late! I got busy with family issues and my time to write pretty much disappeared. I'll be posting chapters more regularly this summer since I won't have homework. Thank you all for being patient!

Unique stared at herself in the vanity mirror in her dressing room. Her makeup barely smudged in the three hours she had spent performing. She had just finished her show, and she had done spectacular. Unique smiled at the bright red roses sitting on the chair next to her. Tonight was beyond exciting. Not only did she perform the best she ever thought she had, she also was getting a bodyguard. Waiting to find out who her first bodyguard would be was a long, antagonizing wait. Her excitement was contagious onstage and all the other actor performed better than they normally did too. Having her first bodyguard was a huge deal. She was finally famous enough to need someone to protect her. Unique had worked hard to get to where she was and it was finally paying off. Her rise to stardom was finally starting. 

 Unique wiped off the last of her stage makeup. It was strange seeing herself with so much makeup on and then none at all. She reached for her eyeshadow pallet and her lipstick. Unique applied only a little, so it looked natural. She wanted to look perfect to meet her bodyguard. She was going to be spending a lot of time with him and first impressions were everything. Unique fluffed her hair and took a deep breath. She gathered her roses from the chair and stood up. Unique glanced in the mirror one more time to make sure she looked stunning. Her bob was still in ringlet curls from the show. She spun in the mirror to check out her outfit. Her black jeans accentuated her long legs and her pea coat hugged her curves. She was prepared to meet her bodyguard. 

Unique headed out of her dressing room, carefully shutting the door behind her. The theater was empty. The lights were dimly shining, a stark comparison to standing on the stage. Unique blinked a couple times, trying to adjust her eyes. She ambled along, enjoying the quiet of the theater. It was a huge difference from only a few hours earlier. Actors loudly complaining, crew members rushing around. The typical theater mess. A janitor must have been by earlier, the linoleum floors were spotless. Unique swore she could see her reflection on the floor. She walked towards the side door, heeled boots clicking. Her bodyguard would be there to greet her outside the theater. 

Unique left through the side door instead of the main entrance and was surrounded by brick buildings. There were icicles hanging from the windows on the building next to her and there was slush on the ground. She inwardly groaned. The slush was going to ruin her boots. Unique's breath formed puffs of vapor. She glanced around before pretending to light a cigarette and puff smoke. "You smoke?"

Unique jumped, startled by the voice. She turned towards the street to see a man in a suit. Unique was grateful it was dark out, her face was flushed red. "No, I don't."

The man was lithe with a side swept bangs. His facial features were hidden in the darkness. "Are you Unique Adams?" he questioned.

"Yes, I am. And you are?"

"Ryder Lynn. Your new bodyguard." He quickly bowed and gave her an embarrassed smile.

Unique smiled and walked closer to Ryder. "It's nice to finally meet you." 

She offered her hand to him and he took it, firmly shaking it. Unique had hoped that he would kiss it, but she knew that kind of thing only happened in romantic movies. She reminded herself that her relationship with Ryder would be strictly professional, not some sappy love movie. A gust of icy wind blew and Unique hugged herself. "I'm going to get going, it's cold out," she explained, trying not to be too awkward.

Ryder nodded. "Okay."

Unique gave him a slight nod back and hurried to her car. Her silver convertible was the nicest car parked on the block. It glinted in the street light and she couldn't help but smile. Although the convertible wasn't very old, it brought back great memories. She had picked out the most expensive car in the lot with her best friend, Marley. They had spent all day pestering the salesman to show them the fanciest car he had. Unique knew they had found the car of her dreams five hours later. Unique felt a pang in her heart. That was the last time she had seen Marley in person.

Unique started her car and waited for it to warm up a little. She couldn't believe that her best friend was all the way across the country now. Unique had promised to visit her in California, but with her shows, she couldn't find the spare time to travel. Unique fanned her eyes before the waterworks started. She sighed and put the gear stick in drive. The convertible smoothly pulled out away from the curb and started to slowly drive through the streets of New York. It was three blocks later that Unique noticed that a dark car was following her. Her breath hitched and she tried not to panic. This kind of thing had never happened to her before. She was glad the traffic was slow; she could pull out her phone and text her bodyguard.

_Unique: Hey, I think I'm being followed..._

**Ryder: Really? What does their car look like**

_Unique: It's black with dark windows_

**Ryder: …**

_Unique: What?_

**Ryder: That's my car...**

Unique stared at her phone for a moment before throwing it onto the passenger seat. Her heart started to pound and the car seemed to get several degrees hotter. Unique fanned herself with her hand. She had already managed to mess up twice around her cute bodyguard. The bodyguard who would be spending a lot of time with her. So much for good first impressions. Unique took a deep breath and then exhaled loudly. "You don't have to worry about what he thinks," she told herself aloud. "You're famous and he's not."

"You're a hot diva, you don't have to worry about what other people think." Unique flipped down her car visor and looked at herself in the mirror.  _Beautiful._

One hour through terrible traffic later, Unique pulled up in front of her apartment. She lived in a roomy flat on the fourth floor. She unlocked the door and waited for Ryder to catch up with her. “So, do you go back to your house now?” Unique rocked on her feet.

“Yeah. Just call me ten minutes before you want to leave your house.” Ryder gave a forced smile before heading back to his car.

Unique didn’t wait around to watch Ryder get to his car. It had been a long day, and she just wanted to relax. As soon as she made it inside her loft, she kicked off her boots and headed straight to her bedroom. Her bedroom looked like a pigsty. Clothes were strewn everywhere. Unique had tried on several outfits that afternoon before leaving her apartment. She didn’t want to be caught by the paparazzi wearing something that was only okay. A collection of water bottles sat on her nightstand, most of them half full. Unique wanted to leave the mess for another day, but most of the clothes were draped across her bed. She could no longer see her white and gray paisley duvet. Unique sighed dramatically before stomping over to gather the water bottles in her arms. After throwing them into the recycling bin in the kitchen area and cleaning up the clothes, she collapsed onto her bed. 

Letting out a deep breath, she sank into her bed. She wished she would’ve changed into pajamas, but she was on her bed. It wasn’t likely she would get up any time soon.  Unique didn’t even bother covering herself with blankets. Within a few minutes, she was fast asleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unique was awoken by sunlight shining through her windows. She rolled over and groaned. Her clock read 7:30; she could’ve gotten at least another twenty minutes of sleep if she had remembered to close her curtains. Unique only seemed to forget to close the curtains when she had the chance to sleep in. Mourning the sleep she could have had, she padded into the kitchen to get herself a much needed cup of coffee. Stretching to open a cupboard, she grabbed her favorite mug. The mug was white with a giant treble clef drawn on the front. It also had signatures from her friends, even Kurt and Mercedes. Unique opened another cupboard to grab herself a Keurig pod. She pushed boxes of food around and there were no pods to be found. 

Unique cursed and sank onto the floor. There was no way she could function without coffee. Her morning was an absolute disaster so far. Unique pulled herself off of the floor and headed to her bedroom to grab a new outfit to go out in. She cared significantly less than yesterday when she emptied her whole closet onto the floor. After running her fingers through her hair and throwing on a loose t-shirt and jeans, Unique dialed Ryder’s number into the phone and waited for him to pick up. The phone rang four times before he picked up. “Bet you didn’t think I was a morning person,” Unique joked.

“What can I do for you?” Ryder asked, ignoring Unique’s remark.

Unique tried not to get too upset by Ryder’s coldness. “I need to go to the grocery store.”

“I’ll be over in thirty minutes,” Ryder replied before hanging up.

Unique glared at her phone. How dare he speak to her that way? She sat down at her dining room table and decided to text Marley. 

_Unique: Good morning! I’m out of coffee and alr_ _eady taking shit from people…_

It didn’t take long for Marley to reply. Unique was surprised, it was about 4:30am in Cali. 

**Marley: I’d say good morning but yours already doesn’t seem very good. Taking sh*t from who?**

_Unique: My new bodyguard. But first things first, why are you up so early?!?_

**Marley:** **I got caught up writing a new song haha.** **I pulled an all-nighter. What did your bodyguard do?**

_Unique: Jeez girl! Get some sleep!! Ryder just was unfriendly. He didn’t even react when I told him a joke over the phone._

Unique didn’t get a chance to read Marley’s next text. There was a sharp rap on her door. Unique got up, shoved her phone in her jeans, and answered the door. Ryder was standing there in a suit. Unique figured that changing into a suit is what took him so long. His hair was also meticulously styles. Unique crossed her arms. “Drive me to the nearest Food Lion,” she demanded.

Ryder only nodded before turning to walk out of the hallway. Unique followed him, stomping the entire way. When she was getting a bodyguard, she thought he would be kind and considerate. Instead, she got a cold, stoic man. Unique debated not calling him next time she went somewhere. She was famous, but not all that famous. In fact, she was surprised when she heard she was getting a bodyguard. Thinking about it, Unique figured that she was just practice for Ryder, who was obviously not great at his job. 

The entire car ride was silent. As soon as Ryder parked the car, Unique stormed towards the grocery store. She entered the store and turned around, expecting her bodyguard to be several paces behind her. Ryder was nowhere to be seen. Unique shrugged to herself and started to walk forward. She bumped into a tall man in front of her. He looked familiar with light brown hair. It took her a few seconds to place who it was, Ryder. Unique was completely baffled. How did Ryder manage to get in front of her without her noticing? 

Unique frowned at Ryder's back. He never even said sorry when he was in her way. Already done with the day, Unique grabbed a shopping basket and pushed past Ryder. If she didn't get coffee, she'd go crazy. Unique ordered at latte from the Starbucks in the grocery store and pulled out her shopping list. There weren't many items on the list so her trip wouldn't take too long. 

She could almost forget Ryder wasn't there if she concentrated hard enough. Unique had already selected her supply of microwave dinners and was heading to the snack aisle when Ryder leaned down to ear level. "There are some people who have been following you around."

Unique's face crinkled in confusion. "What, really?"

"Everything should be fine though. They'll eventually leave. Just stay close to me," Ryder whispered.

Unique nodded and stood closer to Ryder. This kind of thing had never happened to her before. She knew she was overreacting the entire thing, but she was scared. Unique tried her best to stay collected. She casually looked at the snacks, deciding on a bag of cheese puffs. Unique was just about to head down the aisle when Ryder threw himself in front of her.

Unique's heart started to race, and she took a step back. The men who had been following her were charging towards them. Ryder had thrown himself in front of her to protect her. The men reached around Ryder, trying to grab a scrap of Unique's clothes or something from her basket that she touched. Unique felt panic wash over her. She had been close to aggressive people before, but they were usually focused on roughing someone else up, never her. 

Unique almost didn't notice that one of the three men had gotten passed Ryder. The man was grabbing at her shirt, trying to tug her shirt off. Unique managed to dance away from the stalker's hands a couple times. The man was about to reach towards her again when his arm was intercepted. Ryder had a hold on the stalker's arm. Ryder used his leverage and judo flipped the man onto the ground. He then turned his attention to the other stalkers. Ryder delivered a sharp punch in the gut to one of the men. The man fell over and curled up, clutching his stomach. The other stalker ran, scared of Ryder.

Unique wanted to collapse into Ryder's arms. She was completely overwhelmed by all the events that had just played out before her eyes. Ryder turned to face her, and she noticed the bruise on his cheek. "Are you okay?" she questioned.

"I was about to ask you the same," he replied smoothly.

Unique let out a deep breath. "I'm fine, just shaken. This kind of thing has never happened to me before."

"I could tell."

Unique shot an icy glare at Ryder. What was his problem? He was downright rude to her. She wanted to storm away from Ryder, but she was still unsettled and didn't feel safe without him nearby. Unique went through the checkout line and was about to leave the grocery store when Ryder leaned down and whispered, "I'm glad you're okay."

Unique blinked in surprise and looked up at Ryder. The slight smile that was on his face only a few seconds earlier was completely gone with no sign he had ever smiled at all. Unique looked away, feeling her cheeks start to heat up. It was hard not to like someone who had just risked their life for you. And especially if that someone was extremely handsome. Unique pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind to hopefully be forgotten and got into the car. Ryder closed the door, and they headed back to Unique's loft.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unique kicked off her heels and threw herself onto her bed. She had just gotten home from exhausting rehearsals for a new show. It was two months since she initially gotten a bodyguard and she was extremely thankful. Unique had underestimated her fame. After the first encounter with stalkers in the grocery store, she had been confronted by several other insane fans. Once, Unique had gotten a letter written in blood. Shortly after she received the letter, the fan had shown up, pounding at her door. Unique had waited for the fan to leave. Many fans were known to knock on her door and leave before. This one had just been stranger than the others. Unfortunately, the fan had showed up every day for a week since and started writing letters to Unique's family and friends. Unique then called Ryder, trying not to panic. Ryder, of course, had taken care of the fan, getting a restraining order. Needless to say, the fan hadn't bothered her anymore. Even though Ryder could be an unemotional asshole sometimes, she still was glad he was her bodyguard.

Unique dialed Marley's number into her phone and listened to it ring. On the second ring, Marley picked up. "Hey! I didn't think you were going to call."

"Girl, I would never miss a chance to gossip with you," Unique laughed. "We're best friends, I love you too much to bail on you."

Unique could practically hear Marley grin through the phone. "Good. Were rehearsals draining?"

"Duh. You know how much I don't like to move," Unique whined. "How's California?"

"Since I got that record deal, I've been in the studio almost all the time. My life's been pretty boring," Marley sighed.

"You're achieving your dream though! That counts for something," Unique replied.

"What if I peak early and the rest of my life is a disaster?"

"Marley, no. That's not going to happen," Unique reassured her friend.

"If you say so," Marley didn't sound completely convinced. "Anyway, how's the Ryder situation?"

"What Ryder situation?" Unique said innocently.

There was a loud sigh on the other end of the phone and Unique couldn't help but giggle a little. There actually was a full-blown Ryder situation though. After being protected several times by a stoic man who held the door open for her, literally shielded her with his whole body, and focused on her well-being and safety at all times, Unique had fallen for Ryder. There was just something about a man who made you feel safe and looked great at the same time. "I still like him. He's sweet. And before you say anything, yes, I know it's his job."

There was silence on the other end. "Marley?" Unique asked.

"I can only give you the advice I gave you a week ago. Move on," Marley sighed. "There isn't much you can do about it."

"It's hard to get over someone when you see them every day," Unique said in a small voice.

"You're gonna have to."

Unique heard someone pounding on wood on Marley's end of the phone. "Hey someone's at the door. I have to go. I'll call you later, okay?" Marley said hurriedly; Unique could hear Marley getting up off the couch and heading towards the door.

"Yeah, bye." Unique hung up, feeling even more hopeless than before.

She couldn't depend on someone to fix all her problems though. She was an adult.  _A pretty terrible adult_ , she scoffed at herself. This was something she'd have to solve herself. And by solve, Unique was just going to wait until her problem eventually solved itself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unique sprayed an unhealthy amount of hairspray on her hair. It needed to look perfect for her first ever movie premiere. She wasn't in the movie, she was just going to the event to support a friend's friend. It was the first movie they had a role in, so it was a big deal. It was a big deal for Unique too. She would get to walk the red carpet for the first time. The dress she picked out was perfect for her first event. It was an open-back halter neck navy blue dress with silver sparkles near the collar. It nearly swept the floor when Unique walked, so she paired it with silver heels. 

She was applying the finishing touches to her makeup when the sound of a doorbell interrupted. "Coming!" Unique called as she examined her makeup in the mirror.

A good three minutes later, Unique opened the door. A very impatient Ryder stood there, arms crossed. "Are you finally ready?"

"Hmm, I might be forgetting something," Unique feigned. "Better run through a checklist."

The reaction she got from Ryder was priceless. Obviously failing to stay composed, he had stormed out, muttering curse words he probably thought Unique couldn't hear. Unique waited until Ryder was out of sight before following him. She didn't know why Ryder chose a career as a bodyguard. It clearly didn't fit his personality.

When Unique finally walked outside, Ryder was waiting for her. He was holding the car door, tapping his foot on the ground. Ryder was gnawing his lip, clearly trying not to yell for her to hurry up. Unique took obvious slow steps towards the car. She watched as Ryder closed his eyes in frustration. While his eyes were closed, she changed her pace and stepped through the car door. Ryder opened his eyes and glance around trying to spot Unique. "I'm ready to go," Unique chirped from inside the car.

"Finally," she heard Ryder mutter.

"What was that?" Unique asked, although she already knew.

"Nothing, miss."

Ryder climbed into the front seat of the limo they were taking to the premiere. Unique barely noticed the man in the passenger seat. He was wearing a suit similar to Ryder's. Ryder wordlessly turned the key to turn on the car. He then turned the radio on to the classic hits channel, a channel both he and Unique enjoyed. Ryder pulled out onto the road and Unique stared out the window. The movie was expected to be successful so the roads to the premiere were clogged with traffic. Unique sighed and smoothed out the skirt of her dress. She was about to pull out her phone when she heard something she had never heard before. The song "Sweet Dreams" blared on the radio and Ryder was singing along. Unique listened as Ryder sang along to the chorus, tapping his hands on the wheel. He must have forgotten that he had a passenger with him. Unique decided not to mention anything and stayed quiet.

The song ended and a new song came on. Ryder was silent and returned to solely driving. Unique remained quiet. It almost felt wrong to interrupt the silence after Ryder had sung. She slipped her phone out of her sparkly, navy blue clutch purse and sent a message to Marley. 

_Unique: Ryder was just singing in the car. I'm not sure if he remembers I'm still here...._

**Marley: Oh my** **godddddd** **! Is he any good**

_Unique: Yeah! He actually has a great voice_

**Marley: That just makes him more of a catch ;) Not for you though...**

_Unique: I know, I know. He's my bodyguard, whatever_

Unique frowned at her phone before opening 1010 and settling into a game. It seemed that they would never talk about Ryder's singing. Unique didn't mind; it had felt invasive to listen to Ryder sing passionately. Ryder eventually turned around in his seat. "We're here, miss."

"Okay," Unique replied, putting her phone back into her clutch purse.

Ryder stepped out of the car first. The man in the passenger seat moved to sit in the driver's seat. From the car, Unique could see the red carpet lined with paparazzies. She took a deep breath before stepping out of the car. Instantly, dozens of cameras were pointing at her. Unique hoped her dress wasn't wrinkled. Ryder walked next to her but lagged slightly behind. Unique spotted other celebrities posing so she strode over to join them. Unique said a quick "hi" to Quinn Fabray, the co-star of the movie. She embraced Kurt and Mercedes, the friends who had invited her. Mercedes was wearing a stunning, tight, black dress. Kurt matched Mercedes in a plain, black suit. "Is this exciting or what?" Mercedes grinned at Unique.

"That and nerve-racking," Unique declared.

Kurt laughed. "So, is this your first premiere?"

"Yeah." Unique managed a half-smile. "Can you tell I'm nervous?"

"Only a little," Mercedes reassured her.

"Just act confident. It doesn't matter if you know what you're doing as long as you look confident doing it," Kurt advised. "This is our first premiere too."

Unique raised her eyebrows. "Really?"

Mercedes nodded. "Confidence is key."

Unique decided to take their advice. She was almost inside the theater when a reporter suddenly appeared. "Unique Adams, blossoming Broadway star. Do you think this movie is going to be a success?"

Unique smiled brightly at the cameras. "Of course. With an actress like Quinn Fabray in the movie, it's bound to be good."

The reporter nodded. "This is Quinn's first big role in a movie, isn't it?"

Unique thought for a second but her mind was blanking. She settled for saying "Yes. She's a brilliant actress though, so I'm sure the movie will be amazing."

"I've read you and Quinn are both from the same area in Ohio. Have you crossed paths with her before?"

"Yes, she came back from Yale for a few weeks to help with singing and dancing for the Glee club at McKinley High. We've crossed paths a few times other than that. She's such an amazing, sweet person," Unique answered.

The reporter was about to ask another question when Ryder walked over. "It's time to go into the theater," he murmured. 

"The premiere is about to start; I've got to be going," Unique said with a fake smile. "It was nice talking to you."

With that, Unique sashayed into the theater. "Thank you," she whispered to Ryder.

"It's my job," he replied.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The movie was a complete success. Quinn was a convincing actress and the movie was her big break (even though her character died at the end of the movie, thus discontinuing her from the movie series). Unique was invited to the afterparty, a smattering of close friends, but she stated she was too tired to stay up any later. 

The car ride back to her loft was quiet, a nice change from the movie premiere. Unique and Ryder were the only two people in the limo. Unique watched as Ryder drove home, not even touching the radio. The last time they had driven in complete silence was the first car ride they had together. No one had known what to put on the radio. On the second ride they had, they agreed on classic hits. 

The ride was significantly shorter than the ride to the premiere. Ryder pulled up to the curb and shut off the car. Unique waited until Ryder opened her door, letting her out. The two started to walk to the door of the loft, Ryder required to make sure she made it home okay. The apartment entrance was only a few feet away so it didn't take long for Ryder to walk Unique to the door. Ryder was just turning to walk back to the limo when Unique spoke, "Hey?"

Ryder turned around to face her. "Why do you only speak when spoken to?" Unique asked.

"It's one of the rules of being a bodyguard, miss," Ryder replied in his monotone voice. 

"What are the other rules?" Unique questioned, shuffling her toe on the sidewalk.

"One is to be friendly but never familiar."

"Why?"

"You never want to get too close to a client. There's always the chance that a bodyguard may fall in love with their client." 

Although it was dark, Unique could have sworn she saw a light blush spread across Ryder's face. She took a step closer to Ryder. Unique was scrambling to come up with something when Ryder spoke again. "I didn't do a great job following that last rule," he started.

Unique tried not to frown. Ryder was neither friendly nor familiar. "I fell in love with you, even though I was taught not to."

It was Unique's turn to blush; her heart skipped a beat. She must have imagined that. Ryder was always so cold and stoic, although on occasion he could be sweet. "Really?" she asked.

"Yes," Ryder said, turning his head as not to face her.

Unique quickly closed the space between them and gently turned Ryder's head to face her. She pressed a kiss to his lips before breaking away. Ryder seemed shocked, to say the least. Without saying anything, he kissed her again. This time, the kiss was deep. Unique felt jolts of energy surge through her body. "I fell for you too," Unique murmured against Ryder's lips.

"And I'm extremely lucky you did," he murmured back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unique smiled at the flashing cameras at a movie premiere, this time, her own. She had starred in movies before, but this was her first big movie. She had voiced a princess in a Disney movie, but it was still a huge deal. The crowd of children would have no idea who she was, but it didn't bother her. It was her first big role and she had gotten to sing, so everything was working out perfectly for her.

It had been three years since she had first gotten a bodyguard. Her years had been busy. She juggled Broadway performances, singing backup for Mercedes Jones, and playing a role in a few movies. Several things had changed in her life but to this day she still only had one bodyguard, the same one she had had for three years. 

Swarms of reporters rushed toward Unique, dying to ask questions about the star of the movie. "Who are you here with tonight?" one of the reporters asked.

Unique clasped Ryder's hand and he smiled down at her. "My husband and bodyguard, Ryder Lynn."

  **A/N: Thank you to my lovely sister who requested this!**


	9. Brittana- Goddess

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brittany tells Rachel the story of her goddess girlfriend. Is Brittany telling the truth about Santana or is it just another figment of her imagination?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Requests are open!! If you want to request, message me a ship (and idea if you have one) or post it in the comments, or on wattpad @alinelovelace, Tumblr @alinelovelace, or instagram @encyclopediabrittana !

Thunder boomed as Brittany and Rachel sat on the sofa in Brittany’s house. “She’s mad,” Brittany said, right as a bolt of lightning lit up the sky.

“Who?” Rachel asked her friend.

“Santana,” Brittany sighed.

“Your girlfriend?”

Brittany could be strange sometimes, but it was because she was creative. She would make up stories to go along with each of her ideas. Rachel couldn’t wait to hear what Brittany had to say about this.

“Yeah, that Santana. We got into a fight about where to eat dinner. She was having a bad day so she got irritated and left,” Brittany explained.

“What does that have to do with her storm?” Rachel questioned.

“She’s causing it. Duh,” Brittany said with an eye roll. “She’s a goddess.”

“Mhm,” Rachel agreed, knowing that protesting it would only make Brittany defensive.

“You don’t believe me,” Brittany said with a frown.

Damn Brittany for being so good recognizing feelings. She and Rachel often joked that Brittany’s superpower was being able to read people so well. “Well, it’s a little unbelievable. Does she live in the sky or something?” Rachel said, trying not to offend Brittany too much.

“No, that’s stupid. She lives in an apartment in Manhattan,” Brittany scoffed.

Rachel shot a glare at Brittany. She had never actually met Brittany’s girlfriend, so she wasn’t even confident Santana actually existed. Rachel chose to believe Brittany, but her faith that Santana was real was decreasing by the minute. “I’d like to meet this so-called girlfriend,” Rachel said, adding air quotes around ‘girlfriend’.

Brittany’s eyebrows crinkled together and her mouth dropped open. “Wait, you don’t even believe I have a girlfriend?”

Rachel gave her a smug smile and a shrug in response.

That hurt Brittany more than Rachel knew. Or maybe Rachel did know and intended it to be that way. Implying that Santana didn’t even exist was a blow to the heart. All the times Santana brushed her fingers over her hand and sent electricity coursing through her veins, all the times her heart skipped a beat after Santana did something cute, all the ‘I love you’s murmured between kisses, all the times her face hurt from smiling so much. Rachel claiming this was fake made Brittany’s blood boil. Her love with Santana was very real, as was their relationship.

“Fuck you,” Brittany cursed. “I don’t have to prove anything to you.”

Except she wanted to. Rachel was one of her best friends, no matter how annoying she could be. It pained her to think that Rachel didn't believe her, even if the truth sounded a little weird. "Tell me how you two met," Rachel said. "And then I'll decide if she's real or not."

Brittany closed her eyes and massaged her temples. Rachel's idea made no sense. What did significance did it have how she and Santana met? It could be a crazy story, a boring story, or a mix of the two. The story would hold no proof that Santana existed, even though she does. Santana was existing loudly and somewhat violently at the moment. Brittany wished that she could just show Santana to Rachel, but right now, that wasn't an option. Brittany opened her eyes and began. "Well, it was a dark and stormy night filled with fog."

"That sounds like the beginning of a scary story," Rachel commented.

"Shut up, Brittany ordered before beginning again. "I was bored so I decided to head to a bar."

"You could've hung out with me," Rachel interrupted again.

"When you act like this, I don't want to hang out with you," Brittany snapped.

Rachel was bug-eyed. It wasn't often that Brittany got angry. Brittany coughed and recomposed herself. "Anyway, I went into a bar and hung out for a bit. I was ordering a drink when I noticed this woman sitting by herself. She was gorgeous, with warm, coppery skin and wavy, dark hair. I could go on about her looks, but I'm sure you don't want to hear about that," Brittany joked, smile returning to her face.

Rachel smiled back; she was glad Brittany wasn't angry at her anymore. Brittany was a kind person, so angry Brittany wasn't someone she saw often. That was the great thing about Brittany, she never put anyone down and was kind and supportive. Many people couldn't stand Rachel's personality and she knew that. Brittany, however, would put up with her, casually commenting when she would get too crazy. 

"I watched this beautiful woman for a while. The song 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' was playing and she was singing along. Well, it was more like wailing along. The woman was close to tears and hiccupping as she sang, obviously drunk. I grabbed my drink and sat next to her." Brittany remembered, trying not to grin.

"Was that Santana?" Rachel interrupted.

She then realized what she had done and clapped both hands over her mouth and mumbled a "sorry". 

Brittany didn't seem bothered by Rachel interjecting this time. "Yes, that's Santana."

"Knew it," Rachel murmured to herself, a celebratory smile on her face.

 “I didn’t really know what to say to her. I mean, what do you say to someone who’s crying hysterically?”

“You’ve said things to me when I was crying,” Rachel mentioned.

“You cry dramatically, not hysterically,” Brittana said with a giggle.

Rachel fake pouted. “That’s partly true.”

Brittany raised an eyebrow until Rachel said: “Well, mostly true I guess.”

“Ready to hear the rest of the story?” Brittany asked.

Rachel nodded. “So instead of saying anything, I waited for a new song to come on. Finally, ‘Milkshake’ started to play and I asked Santana to dance. She looked up at me, tears still running down her cheeks. Santana hastily wiped them off her face and nodded.

“We danced how you would at a club,” Brittany said, cheeks flushing a light pink.

Rachel laughed and nudged Brittany. “Ooh, you danced inappropriately with a cute girl.”

“Shush.” Brittany blushed a darker red.

“Santana and I danced and then I kissed her. She wrote her number on my arm and went home. She went home because I told her she should get a good nights sleep. 

“I called the next afternoon and we went out again. And the day after that and so on. We became official five months ago. The end,” Brittany concluded and bowed down as far as she could whilst sitting on a sofa.

Rachel clapped and whistled. “Beautiful story, Britt.”

“So do you believe me?” Brittany asked, trying to hide the hope in her voice.

“You never mentioned how you found out she was a goddess,” Rachel said, playing with her hair. “I expect to hear that part too.”

“Well…” Brittany bit her lip and averted her gaze. “I met her friends.”

|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|

Santana stormed around her apartment screaming. She didn’t know what else to do. Her day had gone from bad to worse and she had no other way to calm herself than to yell, quickly pace, and cause a terrible storm. Santana pushed over a pile of dirty dishes stacked on the counter. They crashed to the ground, most of them shattering. Santana stormed over the shattered, ceramic bits and threw her crystal wine glasses onto the floor. A few shards cut her foot as she stormed over them. Tears welled up in her eyes, but she continued her rampage.

After knocking over most of the books on her shelves, Santana wailed one last string of swear words before throwing herself on the couch and weeping. Even though she was a goddess, she still needed a job. She waitressed at an expensive bar. Santana got great tips and decent pay there. That was before she got fired earlier. She had gone into work to collect her check. Her boss gave her the check before saying it was the last one from him that she’d get. Santana had held herself together until she left.

She had gone to the park to attend a free yoga session and quietly cry. At that point, she kept her powers in lock so it wouldn’t rain. Later it came time to see Brittany. They decided to go out instead of staying in. Santana wanted to go to Olive Garden and eat pasta, one of her comfort foods, and drink wine. Brittany wanted to go to a Chinese restaurant and introduce Santana to a few of her friends. Santana wasn’t in the mood to meet Brittany’s friends, but Brittany seemed intent on it. They ended up having a small argument, much smaller than a few they had in the past. The fight was Santana’s breaking point though. She told Brittany she was going home and stormed off, figuratively and literally. 

Now Santana moped, replaying what happened in her head over and over again. She was in the middle of blowing her nose and wiping away the still falling tears when the door slammed open. A soaking wet Mercedes stormed in. “What the hell, Santana! Quit it with the storm.”

“What?” Santana blubbered, tears still streaming down her face.

“I was on a date in the park with Sam, you know, the boy I really like. And it just starts to downpour and thunder. I told him tonight was going to have nice weather for stargazing.” Mercedes fumed, arms crossed.

“I’m not having a good day,” Santana said defiantly. 

"I had to end my date early.” Mercedes frowned.

"You could've made a leaf canopy over you. You're a goddess, you can control plants."

"Sam doesn't know I'm a goddess yet. I want to make sure he's the one before he finds out. Plus, just because you're having a bad day doesn't mean you have to ruin everyone else’s day."

 “I lost my job. I only have enough money to pay one month of rent. I’m going to get evicted.” More tears formed in Santana’s eyes. “I don’t know how to do much. I don’t have a college degree so no one will take me seriously.”

“San, we’ll figure something out, okay?” Mercedes sat down on the couch and rubbed her friend’s back.

“What if we don’t? Where will I stay then?” 

"You have a girlfriend, you can stay with her."

"I guess," Santana sniffled. "I'd look dumb if I didn't have a job though. Or a house."

Mercedes rolled her eyes and was about to say something when the door flew open. "Stop the storm this instant," Quinn commanded.

She paused, dropping her heroic stance when she saw Mercedes and Santana sitting on the couch. "Oh, I didn't know Mercedes was here to take care of that," she confessed.

"Why did you need me to stop the storm so badly?" Santana inquired.

"I have nothing better to do." Quinn shrugged.

"Fair enough."

Quinn joined the other women on the couch. "So, what did I miss?"

Mercedes caught Quinn up on everything she and Santana had talked about. Quinn moved closer to Santana so she could rub her friend's back. "That's hard. But you can't drown all of New York City because you lost your job, okay?"

Santana bowed her head. "Whatever, I'll stop the storm."

"Thank you," Mercedes and Quinn chimed in at once.

Outside, the rain slowly came to a halt. The clouds in the sky stayed a murky gray though. Quinn peered out the window, moving aside dark red curtains. "Is something else wrong?" she probed, noticing the dark sky. 

"Well, I got into a fight with Britt." Santana pursed her lips. "It was over something stupid, too."

"Go apologize. Saying how you felt and why is really important in a relationship," Quinn encouraged while Mercedes nodded.

"You think you know everything because you're the love goddess," Santana sneered.

Quinn pinched the bridge of her nose. Even when Santana knew she was right, she still felt the need to defy her. Santana was single-handedly one of the most difficult people she knew, and that included her ex-boyfriend, Puck. "Just go do it."

"Fine." 

She got up and grabbed her coat from the hook by the door. "Feel free to clean up my house while you guys are here," Santana said dryly.

She ignored the comments from her friends and slammed the door behind her. Santana hated doing what people told her to do. She'd rather do what she wanted to, even if it made her miserable. The only people strong enough to get her to do exactly what she didn't want to do were Quinn and Mercedes. They'd known each other for thousands of years and as a result, they knew each other way too well. "Damn immortality," Santana cursed as she walked down the sidewalk.

She could've taken the subway or a taxi, but she'd rather draw out the inevitable: having to tell Brittany she didn't have a job and she was broke. Santana felt so weak and useless when things in life didn't go her way. She had no control over being fired. Santana was a decent employee; she never stole money, she didn't drink the alcohol without paying for it, and she never forced the customers to buy drinks, even if they had been sitting at the bar not doing anything for way too long. Apparently, it just wasn't the 'right time' for her to be working. 

Santana paused at Brittany's door. She saw two figures sitting on the couch and peered through the giant window on the front of Brittany's house. Two women were sitting on the sofa, one was Brittany and one was someone Santana vaguely recognized. She felt like she had seen her somewhere before but couldn't quite place where. Her brain was a whirlwind of thoughts, so that wasn't helping. Brittany scooted closer to the other woman so their knees were touching. Santana felt a small flame ignite in her stomach. She tried to reassure herself that nothing was happening and she was just overreacting. It was easy to think that until the brown-haired woman embraced Brittany tightly before whispering something in her ear. Brittany laughed and nodded. It was flirting, it had to be. The body language was obviously conveying it.

Without even thinking, Santana pounded on Brittany's door. A bolt of lightning flashed and hit a tree in Britt's yard. The tree caught fire and Santana could hear the two women inside let out a shriek.   Santana heard footsteps heading towards the door. Someone was worried about who was outside, especially when lightning stuck so close to the house. As the door swung open, Santana wiped a stray tear off her face. 

|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|

Brittany had taken a deep breath and was about to tell Rachel the story about finding out Santana was a goddess when tears started forming in her eyes. Everything about the day, the fight with Santana, hit her at once. What was the point of telling a story about a woman that might hate her. The next thing she knew, her face was being smashed into Rachel’s shoulder. “Are you okay?” Rachel whispered in Brittany’s ear.

“Yeah, I’m just a little upset about Santana,” Brittany mumbled into Rachel’s shoulder.

“I know what will make you feel better. Dressing up Lord Tubbington.”

Brittany sat up, giggling. Trying to shove doll clothes on her cat always made her feel better. He was much too big to fit into any normal cat sized clothing. Although he was fat, Brittany would never say anything about it to Lord Tubbington. His feelings would be hurt. 

Brittany was about to tell Rachel that dressing up Lord Tubbington would be a great idea when huge crack sounded. She and Rachel had both screamed, frightened by the sudden noise. Brittany’s tree was on fire. Brittany barely got a minute to scope out the damage when there was a knock on the door. Both women had gotten up to open the door. Rachel lurked behind Brittany as Brittany headed towards the door. "Who's outside?" Rachel nervously chirped.

"Rachel, I haven't opened the door yet."

Brittany opened the door, worried that the person outside could've gotten hurt. Her tree had just caught on fire so some kind of injury was plausible. Brittany's eyebrows crinkled together. "San?"

"Who are you with? I saw her kiss you," Santana demanded, tears sparkling in her eyes.

That explained the tree catching on fire. "That's no reason to set a tree on fire. Can you get Mercedes to fix it?" Brittany sighed.

"Answer me first."

"This is Rachel." Brittany gestured to Rachel who was still trying to hide behind her.

Rachel reluctantly stepped out into the open. She gave a quick wave and hid behind Brittany again. Brittany didn't blame Rachel for being terrified, the woman in front of her with the inky black hair, scowl on her face, fire in her eyes, had just set her tree on fire because she was angry. 

"Why did Rachel kiss you?" Santana seethed.

"She kissed me goodnight. Rachel is my best friend, remember?" Brittany answered calmly. Or at least she hoped she sounded calm.

Brittany watched as something seemed to click in Santana's brain. She looked at Brittany sheepishly. "I thought I recognized her from somewhere. I'm sorry I set your tree on fire. And yelled at you earlier. I can get Cedes to fix the tree."

"Why were you so upset earlier?" Brittany wondered aloud.

"I lost my job," Santana mumbled, staring at the ground.

Brittany took a step forward and wrapped Santana in an embrace. She held Santana as Santana buried her face into Brittany's shoulder. "Honey, you should've told me this earlier."

"I was embarrassed. I'm some unemployed loser now."

Brittany kissed the top of Santana's head. "You're not a loser. I can help you look for a job this weekend."

Brittany heard Santana gulp. "I don't have a college career," Santana whispered, so Rachel couldn't hear.

"Don't worry, we'll figure it out. Look at me."

 Brittany gently lifted Santana's chin. Santana's eyes were swimming with unshed tears and her cheeks were flushed red. She pressed a chaste kiss to Santana's lips. "I love you no matter what happens, okay?"

Santana nodded. "Okay. I love you too."

"Not to interrupt the moment or anything, but are you ever going to tell me that story, Brittany?" Rachel said, still hidden from Santana's sight.

"What story?" Santana asked.

"The story of how I met your friends."

"Oh god."

"What?" Rachel demanded. "I need to know what happened because I feel so left out right now."

"Is she always this annoying?" Santana whispered loudly.

"Let's go to the couch," Brittany suggested.

Rachel and Santana reluctantly agreed and headed over to the couch, following behind Brittany. Rachel lingered close to Brittany, still wary of Santana. Understandably so, considering she set fire to Brittany's tree because of her.  "Do you guys want popcorn before we start?" Brittany offered.

"Sure," Santana and Rachel replied at once. 

Rachel's eyes grew huge as Brittany started to get up. Santana noticed Rachel's distress and rolled her eyes. "I'll make the popcorn."

Brittany gave Santana a peck before Santana got up to make popcorn. "So, the story?" Rachel suggested.

"Okay," Brittany hesitated. "I don't know where to start."

"Anywhere."

Brittany stared up at the ceiling for a few minutes before finally speaking. "I was staying over at Santana's for the night." She glared at Rachel when Rachel made kissing faces.

"It was the first time I had ever stayed the night at her place. I was a little nervous, you know, not knowing exactly where you're sleeping. But it was Santana's home and I was determined to love it. We decided to watch a movie before we went to sleep, so we were sprawled out on the couch cuddling. I don't remember what movie it was though. It was nearing the end though, so I was kissing her neck and we were giggling. Santana flipped off the movie and we got up to head to her bedroom. We were almost there when there was the faint sound of a key being turned in a lock. Santana turned around first and I tugged on her arm a little. 'Wait, I heard something, Britt,' she said.

"So we waited in the dimly lit living room for something to happen. When something finally did happen, it wasn't what we expected. The door flew open, knocked off its hinges. A willowy boy with elf ears burst through the door, followed by two women, one of which was holding a sapling in her hands. 'Santana! Make them change Blaine back,' he wailed."

"Wait, what color hair did he have?" Rachel interrupted.

Brittany narrowed her eyes. "Chestnut. Why does it matter?"

"With really weird fashion?" Rachel continued.

"Yes?"

"Oh my god, Kurt. I know him, we used to go to NYADA together!" Rachel clapped her hands together. "I didn't know he knew Santana."

"Huh, well I guess he does."

"You guys talking about Lady Lips?" Santana asked, walking in with a bowl of popcorn.

She plopped down on the couch and passed the bowl to Brittany, who was sitting in the middle of the couch. Santana wrapped her arm around Brittany and grabbed a fist full of popcorn. "Don't call him that," Rachel snapped.

"I can do what I want. I've known him for hundreds of years," Santana retorted.

Rachel's eyes grew the size of dinner plates. "Kurt is a god too?"

"Angel, actually. With a mix of elf or something. He's got some pointy ears on him."

"He never told me." Rachel pouted.

Santana rolled her eyes. "It's not like we go around telling people we're immortal."

"Can I continue the story?" Brittany implored.

Both women nodded sheepishly. “Anyway, Kurt burst in yelling about his boyfriend. Santana looked confused and frustrated. ‘What the hell is going on,’ she said.

“‘Quinn made Blaine love someone else and Mercedes turned him into a sapling to get him to stop flirting with the other guy,’ Kurt explained.

“He sounded borderline hysterical. Santana turned to the two women standing behind him. ‘Quinn,’ she said. ‘What the hell happened?’”

Brittany glanced at Santana out of the corner of her eye. It always felt weird to tell stories about other people when they were right there. Everyone remembered things slightly differently. So far, Santana didn’t seem bothered by Brittany’s portrayal of her.

Brittany continued, "Quinn, the blonde woman who had followed Kurt in, was obviously drunk. 'He tried to stop me from ordering more drinks,' she babbled.

"'And you Mercedes?' Santana questioned.

"'I wanted to help. Kurt was freaking out when Blaine started flirting with another guy. So I made Blaine stop.' Mercedes smiled.

"'He's a tree!' Kurt yelled.

"'He stopped flirting though!'"

Santana laughed, remembering everything that Brittany had just said. "That was way funnier than I remembered."

Brittany exchanged a look with Rachel. "No offense, but it was slightly traumatizing for me. I was so confused." 

Santana was about to reply when the door flew open. "Santana! You lit a tree on fire?" a voice hollered. 

"Shit," Santana muttered. "They're here."

"Who's here?" Rachel asked.

Rachel's question went unanswered as the people who broke down the door walked into sight. Brittany recognized the lithe, blonde, permanently angry woman as Quinn. The dark, curvy woman with hands on her hips was Mercedes. "Brittany." Mercedes approached her. "Are you okay? We all know your tree isn't." As she said this, she turned to glare at Santana who put her hands up in mock surrender. 

"I'm fine, thanks for asking." Brittany smiled at Mercedes. "Santana said you would fix the tree."

Mercedes turned to face Santana, looking incredulous. "Really, girl?"

Santana shrugged. "You are a plant lady, so why not?"

Brittany watched as it dawned on Rachel. She scooted closer to Brittany on the couch. "Are these Santana's goddess friends?"

Brittany nodded. "Mercedes is the nice one. Quinn is the angry one."

"Are you going to introduce yourselves?" Rachel piped up. "It's rude not to."

All heads swiveled to look at Rachel. "Uh, Rachel. You used your bitchy know-it-all voice. That's not good. They have powers you know." Brittany whispered.

Rachel stayed very still as if not moving would make her invisible. Brittany opened her mouth to reply when Mercedes finally spoke, interrupting the awkward silence. "I'm Mercedes. I can control and grow plants. If you want to know anything else just ask."

"How long have you known Kurt and what is your relationship with him?" Rachel shot at the other woman.

Mercedes chuckled. "So you know Kurt too. I've known Kurt for forever, probably over a thousand years. He's my best friend."

Rachel started to speak but Brittany elbowed her. "Let's not argue about who's Kurt's best friend," she hissed.

Quinn cleared her throat, waiting for everyone to be quiet before she spoke. "I'm Quinn, goddess of love. Ask me questions, but I'll only answer the ones I want to."

Rachel stood up and walked towards Quinn. "Let me check your tag."

Brittany's heart nearly stopped when Rachel reached up and looked at Quinn's tag. "Just what I thought: made in heaven."

Quinn only stared at Rachel, obviously surprised at Rachel's bold move. Seeing no resistance from Quinn, Rachel continued to persist. "Are you a piece of art? Because I'd like to nail you-"

"You are unlovable," Quinn snapped and walked to the opposite side of the room.

"That means she likes you," Santana grinned. "She's between significant others right now. Don't miss your chance."

Rachel nodded, seemingly inspired by Santana's words. She sashayed over to Quinn and talked to her in a low voice. Brittany wondered what she was saying. Quinn pretended to be frustrated, but it was clear that she enjoyed the attention. "Do you want that tree fixed?" Mercedes said, interrupting Brittany's thoughts.

"Yeah, if that's not too much trouble for you."

"Anything to help the girl that makes Santana wildly happy." Mercedes winked.

Santana rolled her eyes. "What kind of tree do you want, Britt?"

Brittany pondered this for a few seconds. "A crabapple tree. I used to have one in my backyard when I was a kid. I loved the flowers in the spring. And it was fun to climb."

Mercedes smiled with a smile that reached her eyes. "I love hearing about stories like that. Fond childhood memories that is. One crabapple tree coming right up."

Brittany observed as Mercedes walked outside and knelt in the soil. "Don't make it rain on her," she warned Santana.

"How did you know-"

"Because I know you so well. I'm the world's foremost expert in the field of Santana Lopez." Brittany said before giving Santana a peck on the cheek.


	10. Klaine- Surprise Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Since it's Kurt's birthday today, I decided to write a one short for it! I hope you guys enjoy it, although it was quickly written since I only realized that it was going to be Kurt's birthday yesterday. Anyway, enjoy!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Requests are open!! If you want to request, message me a ship (and idea if you have one) or post it in the comments, or on wattpad @alinelovelace, Tumblr @alinelovelace, or instagram @encyclopediabrittana !

Kurt’s birthday started with a phone call. “Hello?” he said groggily.

“Good morning, Kurt!” Blaine’s cheery voice seemed to blare from the phone. “Do you want to go out for breakfast to start off your birthday?”

“It’ll take me at least an hour to get ready,” Kurt warned.

Blaine chuckled. “That’s okay. I’ll see you in an hour and fifteen minutes then.”

After Blaine hung up, Kurt sighed. His bed was so warm; he didn’t expect to have to leave it for at least another hour or two. Although it wasn’t too bad that his boyfriend wanted to do something for his birthday. Boyfriend. Kurt never thought he’d ever use that word to describe Blaine. He and Blaine had been going out for a few months and everything was going wonderfully. 

Kurt got out of bed, shivering. He hadn’t realized how warm he was in bed until he wasn’t there. Kurt stopped in front of his closet, searching through various shirts and pants, trying to create the perfect outfit. He decided on a pair of skinny jeans, and a gray and white short sleeved shirt. The weather app said it was supposed to be warm today.

Kurt left his room and approached the bathroom door. He tried turning the knob, but it was locked. Kurt knocked on the door. “Hurry up,” he complained.

“I’ll only be a few more minutes, Kurt, honey,” Carole replied. “Happy birthday by the way!”

“Thank you,” Kurt said. He was never really sure what to say to ‘happy birthday’.

Kurt waited outside the door until Carole came out. He checked his phone, replying to several birthday messages, most of which were from Rachel. She had spammed him with a variety of birthday themed stickers and gifs. When he hadn’t replied to that, she sent embarrassing picture of Kurt and commented on how much he had grown since last year. Kurt had gotten more lowkey texts from Brittany, Tina, Quinn, and even Santana. Mercedes made a picture collage of the two of them and sent that with confetti emojis. Kurt replied to all the messages, even Rachel’s fifty messages. He was touched that he got messages. Two years ago, he wouldn’t have gotten any messages. Kurt looked up when the bathroom door swung open. Carole stepped out and gave Kurt a quick hug. “Is there something special you want for breakfast?”

“I’m actually going out to breakfast with Blaine today, but thanks for the offer.”

“Okay, make sure to tell your dad before you leave. I’m sure he’d like to reserve you for lunch,” Carole joked before heading down the hallway.

“Yeah, sure.”

It took Kurt a record hour to get dressed and fix his hair. He hurried out of the bathroom to see if Blaine had arrived yet. Blaine hadn’t. “Good morning, birthday boy,” came a voice from the couch.

Kurt turned and smiled. In his rush to look out the window, he had ran past his dad. “Thanks, Dad.”

“Anything special planned? You usually plan your own birthday party.”

“Nothing special, so far I’m just going out to breakfast with Blaine. I’ll keep you updated.”

“What about a cake?” Finn asked, lumbering down the stairs in his pajamas. 

Kurt rolled his eyes. “Don’t worry Finn. I’ll be home in time to make a cake.”

Finn gave Kurt a sheepish grin and continued on to the kitchen. “I’ll see if Blaine can take me to the grocery store after breakfast,” Kurt voiced, half to himself, half to his dad. 

Burt nodded. “Just be home before lunch.”

Kurt agreed and peered out the window. Blaine’s black hybrid car was parked in the driveway. “He’s here, see you guys later!” he exclaimed before bounding out the front door. 

Blaine was just stepping out of his car when Kurt walked outside. “Hi, Kurt. You ready to go?”

“Yep. Could we go to the grocery store after breakfast? I need to pick up ingredients for a cake,” Kurt asked.

“You make your own birthday cake?”

“Well, yeah. It’s less money and it tastes better than store bought cake,” Kurt explained.

A look of panic flashed across Blaine’s face. “That makes sense. I just need to text someone quick.”

Kurt buckled his seat belt as Blaine frantically typed a text into his phone and sent it. “Okay, to the coffee shop!”

The car ride felt brief. The silence was swiftly filled with Broadway show tunes (at Kurt’s request) and conversation. flowed easily. Soon enough, they arrived at The Lima Bean. Coffees and croissants were ordered and Kurt grabbed a window booth while Blaine waited at the counter. Kurt watched Blaine wait and couldn’t help but notice Blaine was on his phone more frequently. Usually, Blaine never went on his phone, at least not when Kurt was around. Kurt decided not to make a thing about it; it was probably nothing anyway. “Here’s your coffee,” Blaine said before giving Kurt a quick peck on the cheek. “Any special plans today?”

“Not besides making a cake and opening presents later on. I completely forgot to plan something, but that’s okay. I don’t mind a quiet birthday.”

“What cake flavor are you thinking you want?” Blaine questioned eagerly.

Kurt laughed. “You sound just like Finn. He woke up and asked me if I was going to have cake.”

“I’m just curious,” Blaine said with a pout.

Kurt reached his hand across the table to lay it on top of Blaine’s. “My favorite kind of cake is cheesecake so I think I’ll make that. A three layer cheesecake.”

“Mhm.”

Kurt frowned. Blaine was on his phone again, texting. Determined not to let it get in the way of his birthday breakfast, he changed the subject. “So how are the Warblers doing?”

Blaine launched into a deep explanation of how each and every Warbler was doing, even new Warblers Kurt didn’t know. As Blaine animatedly talked, Kurt forgot about the whole phone issue. He could watch and listen to Blaine talk forever. “What’s that smile for?” Blaine asked.

“I’m just happy to be here with my handsome boyfriend,” Kurt said with a grin.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two hours later, Kurt pushed a shopping cart down the aisle. “Do you really have to make the cheesecake by scratch? Couldn’t we just get three box mixes?” Blaine whined.

Kurt sighed. “That wouldn’t really be making it. It tastes better made from scratch. If you want to come over later and have cake you’re welcome to.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be there.”

Kurt grabbed a box of graham crackers and put it in the cart, only to find a box of Goldfish crackers already there. "Blaine, did you put crackers in the cart"

"Can we please get them, Kurt?" Blaine begged. "I haven't had Goldfish crackers in forever!"

"Didn't you have a box for lunch last week?"

"Maybe."

After a couple minutes of begging, Kurt let Blaine keep the cracker. They started down the aisle in search of flour. Kurt glanced up from his shopping list just in time to see Rachel standing in the middle of the aisle. Her eyes were wide and she looked like she was just caught robbing a bank. She dashed away before Kurt could even say hi. Kurt turned to looked at Blaine, only to see he looked just as guilty as Rachel. “Blaine, what’s going on?”

“If I say ‘nothing’ will you believe me?”

“No.”

“Let’s find Rachel and ask her,” Blaine suggested.

“Since you aren’t telling me anything I guess I’ll have to,” Kurt huffed.

He started forward only to have Rachel run up from behind him and grab his shopping list. “What the hell?”

Kurt started to complain but Blaine wasn’t paying attention. He was on his phone again. “What do you keep doing on your phone?” Kurt snapped.

“I’m just texting.”

“Texting who?”

Kurt hated to ask and invade Blaine’s privacy like that, but he had been acting strange today. He looked so guilty that Kurt knew he was keeping something from him. The way Blaine thought about the question only confirmed Kurt’s suspicions. “Uh Trent. His grandma is sick.”

Kurt rolled his eyes. “I don’t want to hear it.”

He started down the aisle, pushing his cart and looking for Rachel. Blaine had to jog to keep up with him. “Kurt, slow down!”

Kurt ignored Blaine and continued on. He drove his cart around the store twice and couldn’t find Rachel anywhere. His heart started to sink. Kurt stopped his cart abruptly in the middle of an aisle. “Just bring me home,” he sighed.

Blaine looked upset, but agreed. The car ride back was spent in complete silence. Kurt was sure this was his worst birthday yet, besides his first birthday without his mom. This was the biggest fight he ever had with Blaine and it had to land on his birthday. Kurt sat with his thoughts for twenty minutes before realizing that they should have reached his house by now. “Why aren’t we at my house yet?” Kurt asked, sounding accusatory. 

“I got lost.”

“You go to my house at least once a week, Blaine. It’s pretty hard to believe you got lost.”

“There was probably a better way to do this,” Blaine murmured to himself.

“What do you mean?” Kurt asked, hating the way his voice rose in fear.

Was Blaine trying to make Kurt break up with him? Was Blaine going to break up with him right now? He wasn't ready now. Kurt didn't think he'd ever be ready for something like that. Especially not on his birthday. “I can’t say anything about it,” Blaine said sadly.

“Why not?”

Blaine pulled over to the nearest curb and parked. "Trust me, Kurt. I really want to tell you what's going on. I just need you to hang on for another two hours."

Kurt's eyebrows scrunched together. "Promise this is nothing bad?"

"Yes, Kurt. I promise."

"Okay. We could definitely spend over an hour at the theater."

"The movies sound great.” Blaine grinned. “Can we see  _Overboard_? They remade it and I think it looks good,"

"Of course!"

Blaine pressed a kiss to Kurt's lips. “I promise I’ll explain everything later.”

Kurt nodded. “Okay, but you have to buy snacks.”

“Deal.”

Kurt was in a much better mood after leaving the theater. He was able to hold hands with Blaine and make out. Maybe his birthday wasn’t going to be as horrible as he thought. “I’ll drop you off at home,” Blaine said.

“Why do you sound so excited?”

“No reason.” A smile played at the corners of Blaine’s lips.

Kurt couldn’t help but smile. “Okay, bring me home then.”

He had enough time to think about what was going to be at his house. Kurt slowly pieced everything together. The texting, Rachel at the grocery store, Blaine keeping him away from his house. It had to be a surprise party. Finally, a party he didn’t have to plan himself. Although at least you know what you’re getting when you plan your own party. Kurt wondered who Blaine invited or if there was even a party in the first place. What if he was getting excited all for nothing? “We’re here,” Blaine voice interrupted Kurt’s thoughts.

“Okay.”

“Want me to walk you to the door?” Blaine offered.

“Sure.”

Kurt couldn’t help but notice Blaine type quick text before slipping his phone in the pocket. “You first,” Blaine said, opening the door.

Kurt only got a few steps inside when people jumped out and yelled, “Surprise!”.

A grin broke across Kurt’s face. “Oh my god! I love you guys; who planned this all?”

Mercedes walked over and embraced Kurt. “Blaine did, and he got all of us in on it too.”

“I made the cake!” Rachel exclaimed.

“I stopped Finn from eating the cake,” Quinn added.

“I hired the stripper to jump out of your cake,” Santana scoffed.

“I’m the stripper!” Brittany volunteered.

“I promise there’s no strippers,” Blaine reassured Kurt.

Kurt threw his arms around Blaine and gave Blaine a gentle kiss. He broke away to murmur, “Thank you for all this, Blaine. Really.”

“Anything for you,” Blaine murmured back before kissing Kurt again.

“Get a room,” Puck protested.

The two broke apart. “Thank you, all of you,” Kurt gushed. “I’m so lucky to have all of you.”

“Not to interrupt, but can we eat the  cake now?” Finn asked.

“Yes. Yes, we can have the cake now,” Kurt laughed.


	11. Sancedes- Lady Gators VS Kingslayers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> College football AU for Tacogrande (on Tumblr) or Tacodemuerte (Instagram). She is an amazing artist and you should check out her accounts if you don't already follow them!
> 
> Santana is a football player for the Kingslayers. What happens when she falls for a cheerleader on her rival team?

"Catch!" Blaine yelled, throwing the football in a perfect spiral towards Santana.

Santana reached up one arm lazily, only to have the football fly over her hand. "We've been practicing for hours. Can't we stop now?"

"Santana," Blaine whined. "We have a game tomorrow against the Lady Gators and we can't lose."

Santana sighed, giving in to the puppy dog eyes Blaine shot her. "Okay, but I need to take a fifteen-minute break. My arms are sore."

"Your arms are always sore."

"Shut up, Anderson."

Santana jogged to the bench, where a water jug dispenser sat, full of icy cold water. She filled up a paper cup several times and chugged it each time. Santana sat and watched the players in the huge field. The coach was out in the field, directing other boys on how to stand when they were throwing and catching. Usually, the coach wasn't so hard on the players, but tomorrow's game was important. It would determine whether their team would go on to the national championship playoff. Santana's team, the Kingslayers, had never made it to the national playoff, so getting this far and losing to the Lady Gators was not an option. 

Santana's muscles ached and she was out of breath, despite sitting for ten minutes. Practices lasted way too long for her taste. She faintly heard the coach shout for the players to take a break and stood up. The coach hadn't noticed her earlier break, thank god. If he did, she would have had to run laps while the other players took their break. "Blaine," Santana called to her roommate.

"Yeah?" Blaine said before taking a glug of water.

"I think we should go check out the competition." Santana wiggled her eyebrows.

"That's not allow-"

"Does it look like I care?"

Blaine stared at Santana's face for a few moments. "Fine. But if I get caught..."

"We won't get caught," she reassured him. “Let’s get changed and we can head out. No time for showering though.”

“Come on,” Blaine groaned. “I’m all sweaty.”

“Tough luck. It’s a long drive and we don’t have time. You smell weird no matter what, so don’t worry about it.”

Several minutes later, the two were sitting in Blaine’s fancy hybrid car, much to Blaine's dismay. "Now my car is going to smell like sweat!”

"It's fine. I bet it won't," Santana lied.

Blaine gave Santana a doubtful look before turning on the radio. Pop music blared through the speakers and Santana shifted into her seat to stare out the window. This was going to be a long drive.

Only a few minutes passed before Santana leaned over to change the station. Classic rock blared through the stereo. “Really?” Blaine said, glancing over at Santana to frown.

“You know I hate pop.”

“But it was Katy Perry,” Blaine whined.

“You can listen to Katy Perry when you’re by yourself. I want to listen to something better.”

“Driver picks the station,” Blaine declared before pressing a button on the car stereo.

An annoying popular song blared through the stereo. Santana didn’t care enough to remember the title. She pressed her forehead against the window and slowly closed her eyes. The AC was turned all the way up and the air ruffled Santana’s ponytail. She breathed in and out rhythmically until she was fast asleep.

“Hey, hey, Santana. Come on, wake up!”

Santana was shaken awake. “Wha?” she said groggily.

“We’re here. We’ve been in the parking lot for an hour; I wanted to let you sleep.”

Santana sat up and rubbed her eyes. “God, do I look like shit?”

“Looking to pick up girls?” Blaine asked with a laugh.

Santana’s face flushed. “No,” she stammered.

Blaine chuckled before grabbing Santana’s arm and pulling her out of the car. “Let’s get this over with.”

They strolled towards the campus together. It was decently sized for a college, with meticulous landscaping. Bursts of colorful flowers were still in bloom, surrounded by an array of shiny stones. Santana barely noticed these details as she was desperately combing her fingers through her hair. The two entered through the main doors and were greeted by a blast of icy air.

Blaine quickly walked over to the map on the wall. “It’s probably a ten-minute walk to the football field. If they’re not practicing, then this was a big waste of time.”

“If they aren’t there, I’ll take you out to dinner wherever you want,” Santana offered.

Her checking account disagreed with her statement. 

They walked towards the field, only Blaine’s voice giving directions interrupting the silence. Finally, they found the sporting field. Huge bleachers surrounded the field on three sides, blocking the view of any players from the outside. “We have to walk around to the front?” Santana groaned. “That’s so far away.”

“Wasn’t my idea,” Blaine replied loftily. 

Santana turned to shoot an icy glare at Blaine. “Did I ask for your input?”

Blaine bit his lip to keep from responding and furthering Santana’s bad mood. Although most of the time Santana seemed to be in a bad mood. Today wasn’t a great day to be walking around. The moist air mixed with extreme heat made for a miserable day. Parts of Santana’s hair frizzed out and other parts stuck to her face with sweat. She was close to giving up trying to look pretty for girls; it wasn’t likely that girls were going to be on the field anyway. 

Eventually, the two made it to the bleacher-less side of the field and peered in. The Lady Gators were practicing. Santana’s checking account was relieved. The team tossed the ball back and forth while running. Watching them run made Santana sweat more than she already was. How could they bear to move so quickly in the heat? “Should we sit?” Blaine asked.

Santana nodded since her legs still ached from practice. They walked to the bleachers, staying as close to the edge of the field as possible. Santana planted herself on a seat near the middle. Blaine climbed up as far as he could before sitting down. Santana refrained from shouting at Blaine to come down. She rolled her eyes; she should’ve expected that from Blaine. ‘Get down here’, Santana texted.

‘But I like sitting at the top of the bleachers :(’, Blaine replied.

Santana ignored the message and moved down until she was at the bottom of the bleachers. She turned and flipped off Blaine. Blaine simply shook his head in disapproval and continued watching the players practice. Santana observed the players for a few minutes before seeing something much more interesting to look at. A group of cheerleaders were clustered at a corner of the field practicing for the halftime show. Santana watched as the girls jumped, their little skirts flapping up.  _Damn whoever made those skirts so short_ , Santana thought, blood rushing to her face.

Some of the girls seemed to notice Santana staring at her and formed a little group to look at her and whisper. Santana felt her heart start to beat faster. She couldn’t stand when people talked shit about her. Normally, she would march over to whoever was bothering her and give them a piece of her mind. This was different though. So many girls in short skirts made Santana a sweaty, nervous wreck. 

Santana could swear she felt her heart beat in her throat when one of the cheerleaders started walking over to her. Her phone went off and she quickly looked at the message. ‘Remember to breathe. You look like you’re hyperventilating from all the way up here!’ Blaine had texted her.

God, why was she such a mess? “I couldn’t help but see you staring,” a silvery voice said.

Santana froze, not wanting to look at the girl standing in front of her. Her heart skipped several beats. Reluctantly, Santana slowly raised her gaze to meet the other girl’s eyes. Her eyes were a dark chocolate brown, much like her own. The girl was the prettiest in the group and Santana silently cursed. Of course, she would make a fool out of herself in front of the group’s leader. “Hi,” was all Santana could manage. 

The girl laughed. “You don’t look like the shy type. Are you intimidated by my beauty? I knew I would cause a sex riot showing this much skin.”

Santana tried to come up with something to say but her mind was blank. How could this girl make her so nervous? Luckily, a football player jogged over, capturing the cheerleader’s attention. “So, who’s your new friend?” he said.

“What’s your name?” The girl turned her gaze towards Santana again.

“Santana Lopez. What’s yours?”

“Mercedes Jones.” 

She turned back to her friend. “Kurt, this is Santana. She’s completely overcome with my beauty so she hasn’t said much yet.” -She turned to wink at Santana as she said this.

“I’m not nervous!” Santana blurted out, proving Mercedes to be right.

Kurt merely chuckled. “Just exchange numbers and get back to practice. Your girls sent me over to get you.”

With that, he jogged back to the other football players. Santana quickly clicked into her contacts app and held out her phone to Mercedes. “Here.”

Mercedes entered her name and number then took a selfie for the contact picture. “I’ll text you soon. What time is your practice over?” Santana asked, slowly regaining her confidence. 

“At five.”

“Oh, so it ends in like, an hour. I’ll text you then.” Santana gave Mercedes a little wave, before heading towards the top of the bleachers.

Mercedes jogged back to the cheerleaders and they resumed their practice. Santana planted herself next to Blaine. “Ready to head back?”

“Yep. Nice job not completely embarrassing yourself, by the way,” Blaine grinned.

“Stop it.” Santana playfully punched Blaine in the arm before the two descended down the bleachers and back to Blaine’s car. 

It was Santana’s turn to drive since Blaine had driven to the college. “It’s my turn to nap,” Blaine dictated.

“But I’m supposed to text Mercedes,” Santana grumbled. “I can’t do that when I’m driving.”

Blaine sighed. “I’ll text her for you.”

“How do I know I can trust you?”

“I haven’t told anyone about the incident last year.”

Santana considered this for a moment. “Fine. But only type what I say, no improvising.”

Blaine agreed and Santana started the car. The first thing Santana did was change the station to classic rock. “Driver picks the radio,” she sneered when Blaine opened his mouth to protest.

Blaine crossed his arms and stared out the window. “Be that way then. We don’t need to talk about strategy,” Santana said with an eye-roll. “Stop being such a baby, Anderson.”

Blaine ignored Santana for a little over thirty minutes before talking to her again. “They have poor defense but great offense.” 

“Yeah,” Santana affirmed. “It’ll probably be easy to score against them; we just need to keep our defense strong.” 

They continued talking about ways to enforce strategies and what information they should share with their team. An hour passed and Blaine notified Santana. “Hey, do you wanna text Mercedes?”

“Yeah! Uhh, say ‘hey, this is Santana’.”

“Wow, what a great start,” Blaine said sarcastically.

“Well, what do you suggest?” Santana snapped.

“I dunno.”

Santana took her eyes off the road for a moment to glare at Blaine. “Okay, okay, I’ll write your thing.”

So he did. Not even a minute later, Santana asked: “Did she reply yet?”

“No, give her time.”

And that went on for twenty minutes: Santana asking Blaine and Blaine saying no. Finally, Mercedes replied. ‘Sorry I took so long, I had to take a shower.’

“Tell her ‘that’s fine. Tell me a little about yourself ;)’”

Mercedes then launched into a story about her life. She told Santana about her family, friends, hobbies, and career plans. Blaine read all of this out loud to Santana. “She sounds so perfect for you, San,” Blaine gushed. 

Santana blushed. “She does sound pretty great.”

“Yeah.” Blaine gave Santana a small smile. “I wish the traffic wasn’t so bad. We headed out at rush hour, of course.”

“Of course,” said Santana with an eye-roll.  “Just my luck, I get to drive the longest part of the ride.”

“I stayed in the car while you slept for an hour!” Blaine protested. “My ride was worse.”

“Well, no one asked you to let me sleep.”

Blaine clenched his jaw. “Are we seriously arguing about this?”

“Guess so,” Santana said, glaring.

“You don’t have to be such a bitch all the time. I’m not texting Mercedes for you anymore.”

“What?!” Santana cried in disbelief. “You have to, Blaine! She’s going to think I’m ignoring her!”

Blaine gave Santana a shrug. “Tough luck.”

Santana tightened her grip on the wheel and turned up the radio’s volume. Music blared out of the speakers. “Turn it down!” Blaine shouted, hands over his ears.

Santana ignored him, staring icily out the window. She blared the music until they pulled up in the dorm parking lot. Santana tossed the keys at Blaine and grabbed her phone. Since Blaine was most likely to go to their room, Santana stomped around the dorm buildings and to the football field. She plopped down in the center of the field and just sat. As much as she wanted to check her phone, something in her told her not to. Santana reasoned that it was because she was so upset and angry. She hated fighting with Blaine. He was so sweet, but she had a short temper and couldn’t help but snap at people frequently. 

Santana got up to go apologize to Blaine. She was just frustrated with the several traffic jams they had gotten stuck in, she reasoned.

She kept this excuse in mind as she went to talk to Blaine. “Blaine,” she said as soon as she walked into their dorm. “We need to talk.”

Blaine turned to look at her. “Sorry, what was that? I couldn’t hear you because my ears are still ringing from the loud music.”

“Okay, fair enough. You have every right to be mad at me, I’m sorry. Our argument was stupid and I shouldn’t have pushed you to be even madder at me. I was being stupid, okay? Can you please forgive me?” Santana asked, slightly disgusted by having to plead.  

“Well, if you do one thing for me I will.”

“What is it?” 

“Promise you’ll do it?”

Santana felt anxiety rise inside of her. Blaine could ask anything of her. If she didn’t do it, he wouldn’t forgive her. Blaine would have to forgive her eventually but speeding up the process would be nice. Blaine got unbearable to be around if he was upset with you. Once, Santana broke his expensive headphones and he put salt in all of her food. Another time, Santana spilled food on his bed. Blaine switched all the keys on her laptop. Santana couldn’t help but admire his pettiness. “Yes, I promise.”

“I just need you to ask Mercedes who her cute football player friend was,” Blaine said bashfully. “I want to know if he’s single.”

“Is that all?” Santana asked, surprised that Blaine didn’t want anything bigger. “This is your chance to have leverage over me and you want me to ask about a boy?”

Blaine nodded, staring at the ground. “Now that I think of it, it doesn’t surprise me,” Santana continued. “I’ll text her about it right now.”

Santana pulled her phone out of her pocket and read the most recent message from Mercedes. ‘I’ve never seen you around campus before. Are you new?’

“Fuck,” Santana whispered.

“What?” Blaine questioned.

“Mercedes asked if I was new. I don’t even go to her school! What do I say?”

“Just say you aren’t new. It isn’t lying, you’re just saying aren’t a new student there. You aren’t saying you’re a student there at all,” Blaine replied.

Santana typed out her text and sent it. She typed out another text: ‘Hey, my friend thinks your football player friend was cute. Is Kurt single?’

There were a few long minutes where three dots popped up at the bottom of Santana’s phone screen, yet no text appeared. “She typing,” Santana informed Blaine.

“Okay.”

Blaine sat on the couch, patiently waiting. He tried to look calm, but Santana knew that it was for show. The entire time the two had been roommates, which was nearly three years, Blaine had never had a serious boyfriend. Santana hoped that this would work out well for Blaine; he deserved it. Finally, a short text appeared on Santana’s phone screen. ‘You got my number to hit on my friend?!?! Are you for real?!?’

‘No, no!’ Santana typed frantically. ‘My gay friend wants to date Kurt! I promise I only have eyes for you!’

Only after Santana sent her text did she realize what she had done. ‘You like me ;)’ Mercedes texted.

‘Maybe so.’

‘Maybe we should go on a date sometime. I’m cheerleading at a college football game tomorrow and I hope to see you there...’

Santana gulped. ‘Well I’ll definitely be there,’ she replied.

‘BTW Kurt is gay and totally single. I gotta go, talk to you later,’ Mercedes texted before going offline.

“So?” Blaine asked, visibly nervous.

“He’s gay and single. His name is Kurt. Maybe you’ll get to tackle him to the ground at tomorrow’s game,” Santana said with a wink.

“Stop it.” Blaine blushed. “At least I won’t be a total train wreck in front of him.”

Santana rolled her eyes. “Fine, I deserved that.”

“Wanna head to the cafeteria and get some quick dinner? We can talk about our new romantic interests,” Blaine nudged Santana as he said this.

“Okay, but we are not talking about my love life,” Santana agreed.

“That’s what you think,” Blaine muttered under his breath.

“What did you say?”

“Nothing.”

Blaine grabbed his wallet and Santana’s purse. “Let’s go.”

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

Santana was woken up early the next morning by Blaine. “Stop making good smelling food,” she moaned. 

“It’s time to get up anyway,” Blaine said. “We have a big day ahead of us.”

Santana rolled over to look at her alarm clock. The clock face read ‘7:25 A.M.’. It was too early for breakfast and definitely too early to get up. “Can’t I spend at least half of the day sleeping?”

“Sorry, Coach wants us to have breakfast at 7:30.”

“How will he know?” Santana mumbled into her pillow.

Blaine tsked at her. “Get up or I’ll make you get up.”

Santana pondered this option. On one hand, she’d be able to lay in bed for a few more minutes before Blaine came to get her. On the other hand, he’d grab her mattress and flip it, a definite, terrible way to start her morning. “Fine, fine. I’m up.”

Santana rolled herself out of bed, softly thudding onto the floor. She stood up, blanket cocoon coming with her. Santana shuffled to the table and sat down. Blaine turned to look at her and then sighed. “Really?”

“Yes, I’m warm and comfy.”

Blaine passed her a cup of black coffee. “Thanks,” she said, reaching her arm out from her blankets to grab her mug. 

Blaine shot her a disapproving look before bringing over two plates of eggs and bacon. He slid Santana her plate across the table. Santana mumbled a ‘thank you’ before digging in. Blaine was pretty good at cooking, although not as good as her. Santana wasn’t a morning person, so she never made breakfast for the two of them. If she did though, it would be damn good.

In almost no time, Santana had finished off her plate and got up to get seconds. “What time does the game start?” she asked after sitting back down.

“6:00. Be careful, you’re going to get food on your blanket.” Blaine reached across the table to push Santana’s blanket off her plate. “That means we have to be on the bus at 3:50.”

“Why,” Santana groaned. “I hate going early. It’s always so awkward to be on someone else’s field and be in someone else’s locker room.”

“That’s just how it is sometimes,” Blaine said, getting up and pushing his chair in. He grabbed Santana’s plate and placed it in the sink. “I’ll pack snacks though.”

“Still sucks.”

Santana flopped back down on her bed. She pulled up a YouTube video on her phone and began to watch it. Not even five minutes in, a text from Mercedes interrupted her video. She clicked on it and read it. ‘I’ll be looking for you tonight ;)’ 

‘You’ll definitely see me,’ Santana texted.

As soon as Mercedes saw her on the field, she would piece together the fact that she was there to spy on the Lady Gators. Mercedes would hate her, ruining Santana’s chance to be with her. Santana didn’t know Mercedes for very long but knew that she was something special. She felt it in her gut, and she had never felt that way about any of her love interests before.

The rest of the day went by in a blur. Her time was spent between eating protein snacks every other hour and stressing about Mercedes. Santana just wanted it to be time to board the bus. Every minute was agonizing; she hated waiting for the inevitable to happen. Santana knew that Mercedes would be angry. It was just a matter of that moment arriving hours for now. Santana just wanted to be put out of her pain.

Finally, it was time to board the bus. Santana sat next to Blaine. She ended up sleeping with her head on Blaine’s shoulder for the entirety of the ride. All that stressing had worn her out. Blaine let her sleep since Santana had woken up at 7:30. It took two hours to make it to the school. Traffic clogged the roads; hundreds of people wanted to see the final college football game of the season.

Blaine shook Santana awake as soon as they pulled into the campus parking lot. “Hey, sleepyhead, get up,” he whispered.

Santana groaned before stretching. “Are we there yet?” she mumbled, still half asleep.

“Yeah, we are. We need to go get ready; the game starts in about a half hour.”

“Shit. Are you serious?”

Santana felt like she was going to panic. They usually had more time before the game to get a feel for their surroundings. This time, on the other hand, all they would have time to do was get their gear on and go over a play or two. Santana exchanged a look with Blaine. He looked almost as scared as she did. “You ready?” he said, standing up.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” she replied.

They followed the rest of their team to their locker room for the game. Santana’s phone was burning a hole in her jean pocket. She knew that there would be a text from Mercedes asking where she was and Santana wouldn’t have an answer for her. She would be off her game and she couldn’t afford to mess up, not today. Santana already wasn’t the strongest player on the team. She was mostly there to trash talk the other players, a specialty of hers.

Santana stripped off her clothes in a bathroom stall and changed into her uniform. She felt like she was going to be sick. A player rapped on the bathroom door. “It’s time to huddle up, Lopez.”

Santana opened the stall door and walked to the lockers. She picked an empty one and shoved her clothes in it. Santana didn’t bother folding it or hanging it nicely. She’d be too tired to care after the game. Santana joined the rest of her team and listened to the plays the coach wanted to use. After the plays, he moved onto a boring pep talk that was supposed to make the team motivated. Instead, it nearly put Santana to sleep. The coach wasn’t great with motivational talks. Finally, it was time to put their hands in. “One… two… three…,” the coach started.

“Kingslayers!” the team shouted.

“Lady slayers!” Santana yelled, her mind elsewhere.

Blaine raised his eyebrow at Santana but said nothing. The team then jogged out onto the field to begin the game. The coin flip revealed that the Lady Gators were on defense first. “Easy peasy,” Santana whispered to Blaine.

Blaine smirked, showing that he had heard her. Santana examined the opposing team. They weren’t super impressive. The quarterback was a tall guy built awkwardly. When he saw Santana looking at him he snarled, “What’re you lookin’ at?”

“I’m just looking around to see who’s going to finish second. Spoiler alert: it’s you,” Santana replied coolly.

The guy only laughed. “Who the hell do you think you are?”

“The best corner in the whole damn game.”

The quarterback didn’t get a chance to reply. The referee blew the whistle and the game began. For the entire first quarter, Santana avoided looking at the cheerleaders. She was certain Mercedes had spotted her. Or maybe she hadn’t since Santana had her helmet on. Santana mentally slapped herself. She completely forgot that Mercedes wouldn’t be able to make out her face when it was blocked by her helmet. Suddenly, Santana felt better about the whole thing. Maybe Mercedes wouldn’t find out. 

Then Santana was pulled out during the second quarter. She had to sit on the bench, helmet off, facing Mercedes. So much for Mercedes not knowing. Santana watched Mercedes’s face when she pulled off her helmet. She watched as Mercedes’s lips formed an ‘o’. Santana looked away after that.

She stared the ground until she felt a tap on her shoulder. Santana looked up to see Mercedes standing there. Her heart climbed into her throat. She didn’t speak because she knew she wouldn’t be able to form sentences. Luckily, Mercedes spoke first. “You didn’t tell me you played for the Kingslayers,” she said, arms crossed.

Santana sighed. There were several ways she could answer the question. She could reply with: ‘You never asked’, but she knew that would only make Mercedes angry. Santana settled on a safer choice. “I didn’t think you’d want to date me if we were on rival teams. I should’ve told you though.”

Mercedes nodded, pondering what to say to that. “You really like me, don’t you?” she said jokingly.

Santana felt a blush creep across her cheeks. “How couldn’t I? You’re funny and absolutely breath-taking. That’s why I can’t talk half the time I’m around you.”

Mercedes laughed, much to Santana’s pleasure. “You’re pretty cute yourself.”

Santana tried to stop the smile forming on her face but it was a losing battle. She had the face of a love-struck idiot. And she didn’t care. Santana was surprised, however, when she stood up from the bench and kissed Mercedes. Mercedes’s hands tangled in Santana’s sweaty ponytail. Santana cupped Mercedes face with the hand that wasn’t gripping her uniform. The kiss was sweaty but surprisingly pleasant. The entire stadium seemed to disappear. Only they existed and mattered. That was until a football team scored a touchdown and the crowd erupted in applause and cheering. The two women broke apart, breathless. Santana wrapped Mercedes in a hug, burying her face in the cheerleader’s neck. Before either of them could say something, a cheerleader jogged up to them. “Mercedes, it’s time to do the half-time show.”

Mercedes reluctantly broke away from Santana. “I have to go,” she said, although that was already obvious.

Santana nodded dumbly, still in shock. “I’ll talk to you after the game,” she managed.

It was Mercedes turn to nod. Mercedes and the other cheerleader were almost across the field when Mercedes turned around to face Santana. She blew a kiss towards Santana and winked. Santana was sure she melted. She blew a kiss back once she was sure Mercedes was watching.

The rest of the game seemed to take forever. Santana’s mind was so occupied with thoughts of Mercedes and she almost completely forgot the importance of the game. She had kissed a sexy cheerleader. And the other woman didn’t hate it. Santana had already won that night. An intense hour later, the Lady Gators won. Santana’s team stalked back to the locker room, defeated. Santana, though, ran across the field to congratulate Mercedes. She gave Mercedes a peck on the lips and a tight hug. “I’m sorry your team didn’t win,” Mercedes murmured so her team wouldn’t hear.

“It’s okay, I already won tonight.” Santana grimaced at her own words. “God, I sound so cheesy.”

Mercedes laughed before saying, “That’s so cheesy, but also so adorable.” 

She leaned forward to kiss Santana and Santana almost threw herself into Mercedes’s arms. Mercedes could barely kiss Santana since she was grinning so much at the other woman’s eagerness. “Wanna come to the Lady Gator afterparty?” Mercedes asked after they broke apart.

“Of course,” Santana replied. “I want to go wherever you are.”

And so she did.  


	12. Brittana- A Day in the Life of the Lopierces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An average Sunday in Santana and Brittany's married life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, I'm open for requests on my instagram @encyclopedia_brittana and wattpad @alinelovelace. You can also leave your request in the comments on AO3 as well. 
> 
> I just started school again so I won't be posting as often as I'd like to. For those who live on the east coast, please be safe since Hurricane Florence is coming! This is going to be my first hurricane (lucky me).

Santana started her morning by being woken up by an enthusiastic Brittany. "San, get up! We're going to the gym this morning."

Santana groaned. Getting out of bed was a sport for her. She did, however, promise Brittany that they would go to a gym. Now that Santana thought about it, their apartment looked like a hurricane had torn through it. She had two choices; she could either drag her ass out of bed and go to the gym or she could stay home and clean. Santana chose the latter. Neither she nor Brittany knew how to be an adult, which meant take-out almost every night and stuff scattered all over the place. They needed to start doing chores, something Santana never thought she would ever think. But for now, lying in bed exhausted, even after a full night of sleep, seemed like a great third option. "I'm too tired, Britt-Britt."

"I know what will perk you up," Brittany said and left the room.

"More sleep?" Santana mumbled into her pillow, even though she knew Brittany couldn't hear her.

Santana could tell whenever Brittany headed towards her, even if she couldn’t see her. The telltale jingle of a necklace bouncing against her wife's chest would sound. Brittany wore her wedding ring on a necklace since she lost her ring so often. Santana waited for the sound of Brittany’s necklace. Soon, she heard a jingle. "Black coffee," Brittany grinned, perching on the edge of the bed.

Santana sat up, knowing that Brittany wouldn't let her sleep in any later. "Thanks," she said, giving the other woman a small smile.

In Brittany's other hand, she held a mug of green strawberry tea. That was her favorite warm beverage. Santana was a strictly black coffee in the morning person. "How long have you been up?" Santana asked.

"I got up at five," Brittany replied.

Santana had no idea how Brittany woke up so early. If Santana woke up earlier than ten, she would be a disaster. "Do we have to go to the gym?" she pleaded, giving her wife puppy eyes. 

"San, you promised!"

"It's too early though."

"It's eight and I woke up three hours ago. Therefore, it's not too early," Brittany explained.

"It is for me!"

Santana frowned at Brittany. "If I don't have to do to the morning workout, I'll clean the house, pick up groceries, and learn how to cook."

Brittany crinkled up her nose in thought before replying. "Deal. But I'll get the groceries since I'll already be out."

"That works for me." 

Santana leaned over to place a kiss on Brittany's lips. "See you later, babe."

Brittany left their apartment thirty minutes later. Santana forced herself out of bed since it would take a while to clean the house. She didn't want to disappoint Brittany again. Santana stretched and walked into the living room space. Brittany had designed the apartment so everything had a splash of color. Santana secretly loved it. The curtain and accent pillows were bright florals. Orange lamps donned the dark end tables on either side of the sky-blue couch. Two dusty pink chairs with zig-zag accent pillows faced the gold coffee table in the middle of the room. Lord Tubbington lay upon the bright orange ottoman, taking yet another nap. A lesbian flag hung on the wall above the TV. The décor may have been deemed as too wild by others, but to Santana, it was home. 

After eating a protein bar and downing another cup of coffee, Santana mentally prepared herself to clean. She decided to dust first since it seemed like the easiest chore on her list. Santana wandered to the cupboard and pulled out the Swiffer duster. She had to stand on her tiptoes to read shelves, so she didn't bother moving things off the shelf. Knickknacks that cluttered spaces were lightly dusted. Santana hoped Brittany wouldn't look too hard at anything she dusted. Half-assing the entire thing, it only took Santana thirty minutes to complete. 

Santana shuddered at the next thing on her list: dishwashing. The dishwasher in the apartment didn't work and Santana and Brittany never got around to purchasing a new one. That meant Santana would have prune fingers. She walked over to the refrigerator and wrote ' buy dishwasher or plastic gloves' on the to-do list. Luckily, there weren’t many dishes to wash that day. It only took Santana ten minutes to scrub down the mugs, dishes, plates, and silverware and put them on the dish drying rack. She rubbed her fingers together and shuddered. At least that was over with.

_Two more things to go_ , Santana thought to herself.  _And then I have to find a recipe for lunch and dinner._

Santana bustled into the bedroom to scoop the laundry off the floor and sort it. She could run a few loads of laundry throughout the day. Santana popped into the laundry room, which was more like a closet, checking if any laundry lay in the washer. She opened the washer and peered inside. An assortment of black and gray clothes were there, meaning Brittany must have thrown in a load. Santana switched the clothes to the dryer and wandered back into the bedroom. The last thing she needed to do was tidy up. Santana made the bed, which looked like a tangled mess. Apparently, she had wrapped herself into a blanket cocoon while asleep; then when she woke up, she pushed all the covers onto the floor in a messy burrito.

 Santana then walked around the house, straightening crookedly placed objects, putting magazines in a small wicker basket sitting under an end table. It didn't take very long to finish, mostly because Santana didn't mind the mess all that much.  _It’s an intentional mess_ , she told herself.  _It's supposed to be a little disorganized, it's part of the style._

Santana flopped down on the couch and grabbed her phone off of the coffee table. She had a text from Brittany saying that she got to the gym okay. Santana sent a quick text saying to enjoy her class. She then clicked the Chrome app and searched recipes. After what seemed like forever, Santana found a recipe that caught her eye: raspberry skillet pancakes. It seemed easy enough, so she sent the ingredient list to Brittany. 'Need this from the store!'

Santana searched dinner recipes. She picked a recipe with the little leaf on top since those always looked fancy. Santana texted Brittany the list of ingredients for that recipe as well and threw her phone onto the couch next to her. She had finished her chores for the day. She probably had to get dressed, but Brittany’s oversized t-shirt smelled good and it felt soft against her skin. Boyshort underwear hugged her body in the most comfortable way, making a clothing change out of the question. Santana lay down on the couch. Since she had nothing better to do (she ignored her law school homework) she decided to take a power nap. 

An hour later, Brittany woke Santana up yet again. "Hey, sleepyhead. Time for you to make lunch," she said before planting a kiss on Santana's forehead.

Santana sat up and yawned. "How was your workout, babe?"

"Fine, I guess. Would've been better if you were there."

Santana got up and meandered to the kitchen. "Next time."

"That's what you said last time," Brittany joked.

"Next time it's not in the morning," Santana replied, opening the fridge to get her ingredients for the pancakes.

"I'm holding you to that."

Brittany grabbed her laptop and sat at the table so she could watch Santana. Santana wiggled her ass at Brittany. "Like what you see?"

"Of course, that's why I sat here, duh. So I could see the view."

Santana laughed and mixed her batter. "Are you working on school work?"

"Yeah."

"Ugh, I can't believe tomorrow is Monday," Santana groaned.

"Teaching probably isn't as bad as being a student," Brittany commented.

"You're lucky you're a teacher."

"I get love notes from my students though." Brittany shook her head.

"Yeah, those lucky bastards get to stare at you and soak in your brilliance, Britt. If I were your student, I'd definitely send you a love note."

“I guess so.”

Santana stared into her batter. Jealousy started to bubble up inside her. She wouldn't admit it to Brittany, but she envied the love notes her wife got. No one should be sending their professor love notes anyway. For all they knew, she could be dating someone. The way Brittany knew Santana, she probably already knew though. It wasn't like Brittany's students weren't aware she was married, she kept several photos of her and Santana on her desk. Then again, many people wouldn't assume they were married, as they were two women. 

Santana bent down to grab a skillet from a drawer and found it had an orange sticky note on it. "Brittany, what did you do with the skillet?"

"Hmm?" Brittany said, looking up from her laptop.

"It has a note that says 'wash before use'," Santana explained. "What did you do to it and why did you put it back without washing it?"

"Oh, I'm pretty sure I fried Lord Tubbington's wet cat food in it for a birthday present. I didn't feel like washing it so I just put it back." Brittany then nodded. "Yeah, that's it."

Santana sniffed the skillet and recoiled. "It smells awful," she gagged. "Don't ever put dirty dishes back."

"Okay," Brittany said, already distracted by the work on her laptop. 

“Britt,” Santana started.

She saw her wife engrossed in her work and sighed. It was one of those days. One of the distant, hard days. One of those days that started off fine and the joy slowly petered out. Santana knew that those days existed in all marriages. Being newlyweds seemed to make it hurt more. Santana always worried that their marriage would fall apart. Santana hated this irrational fear because it made no sense; of course, irrational fears weren’t supposed to make sense. 

So absorbed in her thoughts, Santana barely felt slender arms wrap around her waist. She only noticed when she felt a kiss planted on top of her head. She turned her head around to see Brittany. “I noticed you stopped making dinner. Everything okay?”

Santana smiled at Brittany. “Yes, everything’s fine. I just got caught up in my thoughts.”

“Want help with lunch?” Brittany offered.

Santana shook her head. “No, I’m making this for you so just sit down.”

“Are you sure?”

“I am completely sure,” Santana said, shooing Brittany away from the counter.

Brittany giggled at Santana’s stubbornness and sat down. After a few minutes though, she stood up and began to set the table. Santana stirred the batter and watched as Brittany pulled out placemats they never used. Brittany wandered to the other half of the room to grab a vase of flowers to set on the table. Santana felt her heart melt. This wasn’t something Brittany did every day, just when she was in an extremely good (and slightly romantic) mood. Every worry she had before about marriage disappeared. If any couple would last, it would be her and Brittany. 

Santana turned to face the stove. It had been ages since she last made pancakes. That’s why Santana put all of her focus on watching the batter cook. She didn’t want to burn it; it had to be perfect for Brittany. 

Several pancakes later, Santana got frustrated and threw her spatula onto the counter. Brittany got up to embrace her wife. Santana buried her face into Brittany’s shoulder. “All of them come out undercooked or burnt. I can’t get it right.”

Brittany stroked Santana’s hair. “It’s okay, San. Take a break if you need to.”

Santana broke away from Brittany and sniffled. “I’m going to try again.”

Brittany sat back down, still looking worried. This time, Santana flipped the pancake over more than just twice. She kept flipping it until it looked done. Granted, this took much longer than just googling ‘how can you tell when your pancake is done cooking’, but Santana was proud of her pancakes that were well done.

“I knew you could do it,” Brittany said as Santana set down a plate with a huge stack of pancakes.

Santana smiled. “Thanks.”

They ate their lunch and chatted about their day so far. Brittany told Santana stories about people she had seen at the gym. “Okay so picture this middle-aged man. He looked so gross and sweaty. He was one of those pervert guys, you know? I later confirmed that when he started checking out women who walked by. Anyway, he had to go to the hospital since he dropped a dumbbell on his nose. I swear, his nose looked like a volcano, just gushing blood. You would’ve loved it!”

“Damnit, I should’ve gone to the gym with you.”

Santana went on to share the gossip she encountered online. “So basically, Rachel posted this long rant on Snapchat about how she’s underappreciated. By her friends. I fucking pick up when she calls me because you told me to be nicer to her, Britt. Why should I put up with her when she obviously doesn’t give a crap about me?”

“Woah, calm down.” Brittany tried to contain her laughter. Santana had a short temper and ranted about small things all the time. It was hard to take her seriously sometimes since she got cute when she was angry. Somewhat deadly, but cute. “I heard Finn just broke up with her so she’s going through some stuff. And you don’t have to answer all her phone calls, maybe just one a day?”

Santana thought about it for a moment and nodded. “I’m tired of talking to her three times a day.”

“And I’m tired of her phone calls interrupting our cuddle time.”

“That too. You done with lunch?”

“Yeah. It was really good by the way!”

Santana leaned across the table to give Brittany a kiss. “Thanks, babe.”

“You have to make us food more often,” Brittany said, waggling her eyebrows.

Santana laughed. “No thanks.”

Brittany laughed too and carried their dishes to the sink. “We’ll do them after dinner,” she said.

“Procrastinating is always the answer,” Santana replied. “Since we’re not doing dishes, we should probably do the laundry.”

A grin broke across Brittany’s face. “I love doing laundry with you!”

“And I love doing laundry with you too,” Santana smiled, giving Brittany a kiss on the nose.

Brittany walked into the laundry room to get the clothes while Santana opened all the windows, letting in warm light. Santana sat in a sunspot and stretched. Brittany plopped down across from her with a basket of warm clothes. Both women reached for the same shirt and their hands brushed. Santana tried to hide her smile as she blushed. Brittany giggled. Memories of high school flooded into Santana’s mind. Light hand brushes, giggling, blushing, being in love. 

Brittany ended up taking the shirt and folding it while Santana was lost in thought. “Babe.” She snapped her fingers in front of her wife’s face.

Santana blinked a few times before remembering she was supposed to be folding laundry. “Sorry.”

She grabbed a dress from the basket and started folding. Brittany looked at Santana, hair covering one of her eyes as she peered down. “What were you thinking about?”

Santana smiled, remembering her thoughts from just a minute ago. “High school,” she answered with a smirk and a little eye roll.

Brittany bit her bottom lip to keep from grinning. “What about high school?” she asked, although she already knew the answer. 

“Us. Our sleepovers, the dates that weren’t officially dates, the little moments that made me love you more.”

Brittany could swear her heart melted. Almost every day she felt so lucky she had Santana in her life. After waking up and seeing Santana beside her, she had to pinch herself. Every time, her skin stung. Life was a dream with Santana. She leaned over, pressing her lips to Santana’s. “I love you,” she said in between kisses.

Brittany brushed tears off Santana’s cheeks. Santana cried when she felt overwhelmingly happy. Instinctively, Brittany would wipe away the tears without thinking about twice every time Santana happy-cried. Being newlyweds didn’t help Santana’s case either, everything being so fresh and new. It seemed like Santana couldn’t wrap her head around the fact that she would get to wake up every day with Brittany, her wife. Brittany couldn’t quite wrap her head around it either. 

Laundry took a few hours. After their heartfelt moment ended, the women resumed folding. That lasted a few minutes until Santana found a pair of Brittany’s lacy underwear. She wrapped it around her fingers and shot it at Brittany. “Hey,” Brittany protested while Santana laughed.

Brittany slung a bra at Santana in retaliation. All the clothes they previously folded ended up wrinkled as a result of their clothes war. Realizing what a mess they’d made, they piled all the laundry in the basket and started over.

The women were making progress until Santana found lingerie in the basket. “Hey, Britt. You should wear this.” Santana tossed the lacy, see-through bodysuit at Brittany.

Brittany bit her lower lip. “Right now?”

“Yeah,” Santana replied with a smirk.

“Okay.” Brittany raised an eyebrow and grinned.

She slowly reached for the bottom hem of her shirt. Brittany slowly pulled her t-shirt off, revealing her bra underneath. She then slipped out of her jeans. Brittany ever so slowly started to unbuckle her bra. “Stop being a tease,” Santana whined.

Brittany stopped being a tease and thirty minutes later, they resumed folding the laundry. Again. This time, the women actually succeeded in finishing. Granted, it took them another hour since they focused more on their conversation than their folding. Santana asked about the math Brittany would be teaching, even though she never understood any of the concepts. She liked her to hear her wife talk about something she loved. Brittany asked Santana about law school. Santana found her classes boring. Many of the students were conservative. She, of course, wasn’t conservative at all. At school, she kept herself in the closet and never talked about issues she felt passionate about, such as same-sex marriage. Even though gay marriage was legal, there were still issues that needed to be resolved. Many cities still refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. Santana wanted to fight for those people. She couldn’t imagine not being able to marry Brittany. Santana appreciated that every day, making sure never to take it for granted.

They chatted for hours, even after folding the laundry. The women sat on the floor, facing each other. Brittany was brought back to reality once she noticed the sun had long disappeared. “You should probably make dinner,” she told Santana.

Santana groaned. “I was hoping you would forget.”

Brittany gave a laugh before standing up and holding out her hand to Santana. Santana grabbed it and pulled herself off the floor. “While you start dinner, I’ll put away the clothes,” Brittany said before giving her wife a peck on the lips.

“Fine,” Santana grumbled.

She grabbed her phone off the ottoman and headed to the kitchen. Santana found the recipe in her bookmarks and pulled It up. She had decided on baked ziti since the picture looked fancy. Scrolling down and looking at the steps, Santana decided that the dish would take a lot of work and instantly regretted choosing it. Sighing, she started pulling out pans, pots, and utensils. Santana had made a promise to Brittany and she wasn’t about to break it. Willing every god in existence to help her, Santana started cutting up onions. Chopping onions relaxed her, surprisingly. The sound of the knife cutting through the onion sounded so satisfying. Santana barely noticed the tears rolling down her cheeks. She just continued on cutting. 

Next, Santana moved onto cooking the pasta in boiling water. She set a timer on her phone for eight minutes and started the next step. Brittany finished sorting and putting clothes away by the time Santana was a third through the recipe. Santana mentally sighed in relief; being alone while cooking ranked number five on her boring list. With Brittany to keep her company, Santana worked faster without even realizing it.

Santana slid the ziti into the oven, set the timer, and plopped down in a chair next to Brittany. “I’m finally done,” she said proudly.

Brittany gave Santana a warm smile. “I’m sure it tastes great.”

Santana returned the smile before resting her head on her wife’s shoulder. They sat in silence, not saying a single word. Santana slipped into a state of deep relaxation. She could stay like that forever, just being near Brittany without speaking, perfectly content. Santana almost fell asleep but was nudged awake by Brittany as the timer went off. Santana yawned before rubbing her eyes. “I’ll get it,” she mumbled. 

Santana opened the oven to be greeted by a savory smell that reminded her of Italian restaurants. She almost broke into happy tears; the recipe had turned out right. Santana turned around to face Brittany, pan in hands. “Look, Britt,” Santana held the ziti out towards her wife, “I did it right.”

Brittany jumped out of her seat to hug Santana. Santana quickly set down the pan and embraced her. Brittany pulled away, her hands still on Santana’s shoulders. “I am so proud of you, honey. Thank you for doing this.” Brittany planted a kiss on Santana’s head. “Now cut that thing up so we can eat!”

Santana smiled, feeling elated. As sappy and stupid as it sounded, she loved pleasing her wife. Santana gently set the ziti in the middle of the table and sliced it with the biggest knife in the kitchen. She figured that that knife would work the best. Brittany then used a spatula to put the main dish on two plates. Both women then sat down. Santana poked the ziti with her fork, reluctant to take a bite. Brittany, however, dug right in. “Oh my god, San. This is so good.”

“Thanks.” Santana gave Brittany a bashful smile.

She then took a bite of her food. Surprisingly, the ziti tasted good. Santana had added enough spices and cheese for the dish to blend together perfectly. “I have to make this again,” Santana said around a mouth of food.

Brittany agreed. Dinner went by quickly, due to the quality of the food. In five minutes, flat, Brittany and Santana’s plates were cleared and they went back for seconds. Soon enough, they had finished their seconds. “I’ve decided that making this is too hard and I require assistance.” Santana crossed her arms. “Ziti takes forever to make.”

Brittany sighed and her shoulders slumped. “Santana. It only took you an hour and a half.” 

“But it would be so much easier if my beautiful wife helped me.”

Brittany made a pouty face and stood up. “Let’s wash the dishes so we can do other things.”

Santana got up too, grabbing the dishes and bringing them over to the sink. Brittany grabbed the sponge and started scrubbing the dishes. Santana stood next to her with a towel, ready to dry.

They were a perfectly oiled machine, having done this every night. Brittany always washed the dishes and Santana always dried them. Neither of them minded doing dishes; when it was only the two of them, dishes didn’t seem so terrible. Brittany and Santana worked quickly so they could move on to more interesting things.

“I have to teach this super complicated equation tomorrow and I don’t wanna,” Brittany whined as she flopped down on the couch.

“Why not? I thought you liked teaching things like that.” Santana sat next to her wife, resting her arm on the back of the sofa.

“I don’t like having to answer hard questions.”

“Isn’t that your entire job?”

“Some equations are easier to understand than others, San.”

“In my defense, I don’t even know what 12 times 7 is.”

“84,” Brittany answered without thinking twice about it. “But the point is, it’s this super hard equation and no one is going to be able to understand it.”

Santana nodded. “Fair enough.”

“You have anything terrible going on tomorrow?”

“Just law school. It’s way too much work.”

Brittany nodded in sympathy as well. “I’ll call you during my lunch break. We can talk about how shitty our days have been.”

“Sounds perfect.”

“Can I pick a TV channel?”

 Santana grumbled reluctant yes. Brittany flipped the channel to a nature channel and turned off the volume. “It’s time to narrate what the animals are doing since the people on the show are obviously wrong.”

“Should I go first?” Santana asked, already knowing the answer.

“Yeah, of course!”

Santana stared at the screen. The nature channel was showing an episode on mountains. “How am I supposed to narrate that?”

Brittany screwed up her face. “No one likes the stupid mountain episodes. I don’t even know why they play them.”

Santana gave her wife a sympathetic smile. “It’s getting late anyway. We should get ready for bed. We can watch a movie on Netflix in bed if you want.”

Brittany nodded. “Yeah.”

Santana flipped off the TV and slowly walked towards their bedroom. Brittany followed her. Santana flopped down on the bed and waited for Brittany to turn on the light. Instead, Brittany joined her on the bed. “I don’t feel like teaching tomorrow. Can’t we have another day off?”

Santana rested her hand on her wife’s. “I wish we could too, Britt. But we have to be adults sometimes even though it’s the worst.”

“Can I have first outfit dibs?”

“Sure.”

Brittany got up to turn on the lights. Santana covered her face with her hands so she wouldn’t be blinded. Brittany and Santana shared their clothes, the items that fit at least. The morning started off crazy if they didn’t decide who was wearing what. Lots of arguing usually ensued, making the rest of the day seem to drag on. They’d call during lunch like they always did, but the conversations seemed forced. At the end of the day, Santana would buy Brittany a cupcake from her favorite bakery and Brittany would surprise Santana with a huge cookie. In all, it proved easier to just plan their outfits ahead of time.

“I’m going to wear this.” Brittany held up Santana’s purple and black skintight dress. “With this.” She then held up a black leather jacket.

“Hot,” Santana said with a smirk. “I don’t know if anyone in your class would be able to concentrate with you dressed like that though.”

Brittany scowled but put the clothes back. She grabbed out a gray maxi skirt and headed to the drawers. While Brittany looked for a top, Santana went through the clothes in the closet. She ended up choosing a tight, teal dress. “Done,” Santana announced.

Brittany whipped her head up to look. “Sexy. What do you think of this?” She held up a light gray sweater with owls on it.

“Hold it up with the skirt.”

Brittany obeyed, holding both pieces up. Santana bit her lip and squinted at the outfit as she studied it. “I think it’ll look really cute,” she said with a grin.

They both ventured into the bathroom, hanging their outfits on the towel rack. Santana and Brittany had their bathroom routine perfected, having had sleepovers since they were freshmen. They carried on rituals from their high school years such as brushing their teeth together. When Brittany had an evening class, she would come home to an already asleep Santana. She would gently nudge her awake and ask her if she brushed her teeth. The answer was always no and a very grumpy Santana would join her in the bathroom. Despite the grumpiness, Santana still goes because she likes to talk to her wife before bed. Tonight though, both women were home and Santana wasn’t grumpy.

They changed into their pajamas and brushed their teeth. Neither of them wore makeup that day since it was a lazy Sunday. Brittany and Santana left the bathroom chatting about what movie they should watch. They settled on  _To All_ _the_ _Boys I Loved Before_ since Quinn had been bothering them to watch it for weeks now. Brittany turned on a small fan sitting on the floor before snuggling up to Santana. Brittany ran hot, making cuddling uncomfortable when it was warm out. A fan helped keep Brittany cool and Santana happy.

Santana hit the play button on her laptop and laid her head against Brittany’s shoulder. Throughout the movie, they whispered their thoughts on each character and quietly debated on which one was hottest. Santana dozed off a little over halfway through. Before she fell asleep, Santana sleepily smiled at her beautiful wife, gave her a light kiss on the cheek, and drifted off to sleep completely content. 


End file.
